Employee empowerment: what it is and how to achieve it

What is it?

Employee empowerment is the opposite of micromanagement. It refers to a gradual increase in the authority of individual employees, who step by step acquire greater space for doing their job in their own way and making their own decisions. It is also about self-confidence and independently working employees with sufficient power who are a must for any successful and flexible company.

How can you empower your employees?

• Be flexible rather than rigid in your expectations and demands. As McKinsey & Company states, employee empowerment is incompatible with rigidity and stagnation. In order to give your employees an opportunity to find new and better solutions, you must let them re-evaluate old systems and orders. Nor should you be afraid to abandon these old systems, even though they might still be functional at the time. Conservatism and employee empowerment do not go well together. If you want to have employees who work independently, you should not try to cling on to the status quo at all costs.
• Do not try to have things your own way at all times. In other words, you must suppress your ego. Your team members cannot be empowered if they are led by someone who thinks how they themselves see and do things is the best and the only way. Providing room for your employees means holding back slightly, realising others may have better ideas than you, and genuinely listening to what they think and say. You should also not have the main say and last word at all times. Sometimes you need to accept compromises that do not fully correspond to your wishes: this is something you have to be able to deal with for the sake of employee empowerment.
• Do not criticise employees for making mistakes. Finally, you must give enough room to team members. Let them work on their own, try their own methods and seek their own solutions. You must allow some room for making mistakes. Obviously these cannot be fatal, but at the same time team members must have a certain latitude to make mistakes without being reprimanded for them. Keep in mind that one learns through one's mistakes.

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