A good business is one where employees feel empowered by their role, work and colleagues.

A great business is one that empowers staff to find solutions that solve problems even if it falls outside their job title.

Empowerment is less about letting co-workers fix their own problems.

It’s more about equipping them with the right information and tools to solve their problems without unintentionally furthering the issue.

Empowerment in the workplace stems from within

Not everyone is required to lead an entire team however, staff should feel empowered enough to lead themselves.

When someone is empowered in the workplace, they shouldn’t have to continuously look to their managers for every single decision.

This is especially important for those in supportive roles like IT and human resources.

However, for staff to empower themselves, they need to be in an environment where they feel safe to do so.

Building a team in this sort of environment consists of two key components:

1. Top-down: From the management

The success of a manager goes hand in hand with the success of their staff.

Each team member should be infused with the confidence and assurance that directs the very best leaders across all levels.

Data from Deloitte reports that only 22 per cent of executives reported that their companies were excellent at building a differentiated employee experience.

Management teams need to break the traditional leader-follow mindset and empower their employees to be self-guided in the areas they are responsible for.

This creates informed and decisive teams.

But the cornerstone of this type of work culture is trust.

2. Side-ways: Co-worker to co-worker

Having an empowered team supercharges productivity in your business and results in long-term solutions.

Effective workplace relationships need to be built between co-workers for there to be a sustainable progression within teams.

When co-workers incorporate empowerment in their priorities; it leads to an office full of positive and proactive staff.

With a genuine desire and honest intent for colleagues to build human to human connections in their work life, this is a possibility.

Be and do better

As we took off to Peppers The Sands over the weekend for our annual Sales Conference under the EMPOWER theme, we focused our attention on ensuring that;

– each team member and attendee felt supported,

– built relationships,

– had the opportunity to network and,

– are empowered by unique strategies to achieve more in 2019.

#EmpowerSC2019 was designed to enable our team to confidently step into 2019 with a renewed mind; ready to connect with the channel and achieve above and beyond with discussions lead by our diverse management team.

#EmpowerSC2019 was filled with people from across the business who have years of experience and valuable skills, some who are just embarking on their channel journey and others who are well-established in this industry.

#1 tip: Employees thrive on feedback

Allow feedback to be given and received.

The common three to six-month employee review helps discover workplace concerns, workflow issues and success stories.

But issues and milestones can often get lost with time and be difficult to raise when they’ve happened a long time ago.

In the moment, on the spot feedback is a way to help employees understand the direction they should be moving in.

But to create a space where relevant and constructive feedback can be shared and received, as mentioned above, first starts with building trust.

Team Building

Team building exercises are a way for co-workers to build trust, connections and to understand one another’s strengths and weaknesses that are then translated to a team setting.

This understanding helps them work better together on projects vital to any company or business.

The team building exercises at #EmpowerSC2019 required staff to tap into their communication and teamworking skills to complete activities within a certain time frame.

Employee engagement and team building activities should be a core business strategy of any company.

More than an option, this is a requirement for business success.

Want some more practical tips on working smarter and being more empowered in the workplace? Comment below!

[simple-author-box]