6 practices to become an empowering leader
What could you achieve by being an empowering leader?
There is no single way to define leadership. For decades, leadership has been the subject of research, resulting in nearly 1,000 definitions. However, by studying what the most prominent writers had to say on the subject, the following 6 practices provide an extremely useful template for understanding how to become an empowering leader.
Practice #1: An empowering leader has a driving passion to bring his vision to life.
Great leaders have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and a passion for making that vision a reality. This means:
- They clearly know what they want and they work passionately to make it happen.
- They do not wander throughout the day in a semi-conscious state.
- They do not allow the event and the circumstances to determine what will happen to them.
- They care about the results.
- They use their vision to overcome adversity, setbacks, and even failure.
Practice #2: The empowering leader has no ego
In his book, Good to excellent, author Jim Collins conducted an in-depth study of companies that have proven to be far more successful than their more traditional counterparts. He found that one of the hallmarks of these companies was the personal nature of their leaders, which he called Level 5 Leadership. Many of the most effective leaders are humble. Although stubborn in achieving their visions, they are not interested in press clippings or credit.
Practice #3: An empowering leader builds and maintains relationships of trust
Empowering leaders build and maintain a special relationship with their followers: a relationship based on trust. You can have a wonderful vision within the organization; but if trust is low or absent, then you will have to fight an uphill battle to implement your vision, as it takes the collective efforts of many people to achieve anything worthwhile.
Trust could be defined as trust in your relationship with others and consists of three parts: trust in your competence, integrity and fairness. In other words, when we trust someone:
- We believe this person is capable of achieving business results.
- We believe that we can count on the individual to do what he says.
- And we believe that this person cares as much about our own interests as about his.
When trust is low, relationships are characterized by alienation, competition, and conflict rather than collaboration and goodwill.
Practice #4: The empowering leader unleashes the motivations and commitments of those they lead
The job of high-performing leaders is to unleash the creative potential of people by creating conditions in which they can contribute meaningfully to their jobs and to the company. In traditional (versus high-performing) organizations, managers issue orders and directives that people carry out without much input or thought. This practice can stimulate personal initiative and creativity. People expect to be told what to do and learn to do things verbatim instead of using their own minds to improve the job they are doing.
Practice #5: An empowering leader is a social and organizational architect
What does the word “Architect” mean to you? What do you think when you hear that leaders are architects?
- The greatest leaders understand that their purpose is more than their own legacy. It is creating an organization or institution that survives and continues to add value for years to come.
- In his bestselling book Built to last Jim Collins and Jerry Porras report on the qualities of top companies. These companies were not built solely on a great idea or a charismatic leader, who come and go over time. Instead, such legendary founding companies as Hewlett Packard, Merck, 3-M, GE, and P&G took an architectural approach to building their organizations.
- Another example is our founding fathers. The most important thing about them was not their momentary leadership, but the institution they built: the structure and processes they put in place on which our society continues to thrive today. It is the organization, not just the idea, that commands the attention and respect of the greatest leaders.
Practice #6: An empowering leader acts from positive beliefs about people and situations
For true leaders, the glass isn’t half full, it’s overflowing. They believe that all the exemplary leaders we’ve studied can change the world, or at least make a dent in the universe.”
– Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, Leaders, 1985
Unfortunately, many of our beliefs are more negative than positive. We think the closet is full of mad men instead of guardian angels. If you are called into the boss’s office, you may feel anxious and wonder if you are in trouble.
strengthening vs. debilitating beliefs:
- “Everything happens for a purpose” vs. “Bad things always happen to me”
- “People are basically good” vs. “You can not trust anyone”
- “There is no such thing as failure” vs. “I Just Can’t Win”
- “we can do it” vs. “We will never make it.
Here are some statements that can be repeated over and over again.
- I am a positive and energetic leader who achieves outstanding results.
- I am a compassionate leader who brings out the best qualities in others.
- I am balanced in my personal, family and business life.
- I am a great communicator and believe in continually sharing my vision with everyone I come in contact with.
The content of this post is inspired by our High Performance Leadership program, specifically one of the modules called Leader Empowerment Practices. The program was created by The Center for Organizational Design, Inc./360 Solutions LLC, of which I am a licensee.
I offer training, development, coaching, workshops, seminars and High Performance Leadership keynotes on this topic. For more information, please contact me at (800) 560-4649 or [email protected].
