Nonprofit Employee Empowerment

Source: Flickr, Lincolnian (Brian)

In a recent blog post by Marshall Goldsmith on the Harvard Business Review (HBR) website, Goldsmith discussed four steps leaders can take in order to empower their employees.  Employee empowerment is nothing new.  It is discussed in many circles and more often then not, empowerment is discussed alongside its antitheses, micro-management.

How many times do you as a non-profit leader encourage and allow empowerment?  Is it difficult to do so because of employee or volunteer competency levels?  Or are you as the leader stifling empowerment through your organization’s culture?

Marshall points out,

there is a critical point that is often missed: It isn’t possible for a leader to “empower” someone to be accountable and make good decisions. People have to empower themselves. Your role is to encourage and support the decision-making environment, and to give employees the tools and knowledge they need to make and act upon their own decisions. By doing this, you help your employees reach an empowered state.

I have learned that the issue with empowerment, micro-management, and employee competency is not with those items at all.  It is almost always related to the culture surrounding the leader.  The atmosphere the leader exudes.   Therefore as leaders and managers, within non-profits or for-profits, we must ensure the organizational and departmental cultures we create are ones that allow employees to breathe.  We must ensure our employees are allowed to make decisions on there own.  AND…when the result of the decision is not the most favorable, we must stick by our employeesand encourage them, coach them, and mentor them so that the next opportunity they have to build confidence in themselves will be a success.  Goldsmith clasifies this as “running interference”.

The greatest empowering force of empowerment is trust.  Employees need to know that their leader has their back.

So what are the four steps Goldsmith suggested?  Following are a few things leaders can do to build an environment that empowers people.

1. Give power to those who have demonstrated the capacity to handle the responsibility.
2. Create a favorable environment in which people are encouraged to grow their skills.
3. Don’t second-guess others’ decisions and ideas unless it’s absolutely necessary. This only undermines their confidence and keeps them from sharing future ideas with you.
4. Give people discretion and autonomy over their tasks and resources.

What then is step five? 

Start today!

Start today by figuring out how you as the leader and you as the manager will set your staff up to succeed.  This could be a full time employee, a volunteer, or even an intern.  How will you empower them?  How will you have their back?  Which of Goldsmith’s four steps are you going to employ right now?  What are you willing to relinquish control of in order that the other person can grow?

How will you inspire those you lead?  Hopefully, it is by giving them the chance to prove they are up to the task.

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