In every leadership journey there will come a point where you will need to transition from a command and control leader (some would say micro-manager) to an empowering leader. It can be painful when someone refers to you as a micro-manager, we typically don’t want to be seen as control freaks. Command and control leaders can be very effective, look no further than Steve Jobs of Apple fame. Having a command and control leader can also be useful in emergency situations or working with a team that is very fresh and unskilled (think toddlers).

At some point, most people want to be empowered. Empowerment can be defined as giving authority or power to someone to do something. What are the basics to empowerment?

There are three basic steps to Empowerment – Trust, Train and Empower.

• Empowerment begins with mutual trust – as a leader you must believe in the potential of the individual, trust that they want to do the right thing and the individual must trust you are there to support them.
• Training is required, not just in the knowledge and skills required for the task, but also the “guardrails”. The guardrails are the decision boundaries including areas such as policies, procedures, SOPs’s, ethics and decisions that may show favouritism. The guardrails will change over time as the individual gains skills and knowledge.
• The final step is to get out of the way and empower the individuals. Set up a pre-determined checkpoint where you will be able to provide feedback. For feedback, there is no better feedback than positive feedback when someone is executing to expectations.