Regardless of industry, specialty, size, or any other relation you use when describing your business, your business is defined by your workforce. The people who work for your organization, who are fueling the engine of your business, are what makes your business.
Now it’s time to turbo charge your “engine” and optimize your business to function at the best of its ability. A great place to begin is to empower your workforce. The goal of empowerment is to equip your workforce with accountability for their actions, allow them to take ownership of their career, bring innovation, ‘smart work’, and bring success to their position and your company.
Here are a few starting points to help you empower your workforce:
- Give them what they want.
- Now, there is a caveat to this. If an employee asks for a million-dollar salary, giving them 7 figures is not going to solve any challenges. If an employee wants to listen to music with headphones while they work, let them. If they are a sales manager and want to be empowered by receiving a more prestigious title, come up with a more creative title to inspire them. The smallest things can make a difference, so find what will make someone happy and provide it for them.
- Let them take ownership.
- Give employees the power to own what they do and the decisions they make. Grant them more responsibility and let them step up to the plate to strive for success. You hired them for a reason; entrust them the freedom to be responsible for themselves.
- Don’t rule with an iron fist.
- We all know stories of tyrannical dictators. Micro-managing, going overboard on “house rules”, and enforcing strict policies does not foster trust and respect from your employees. It is, however, a great way to get your employees to resent you and become disengaged.
Empower your employees to perform to the best of their abilities, and see your business achieve the success for which you have worked so hard.
