5 tips on How to Empower Others by Building on Their Strengths:

1. Provide an empowering organizational environment. Build an organizational culture that emphasizes the use of people’s strengths. This culture provides a fertile soil for people to sprout their strengths.

2. Seek and organizational culture where people feel affirmed, valued, accepted and supported. Convey a strong welcome to newcomers. This affirmation instills a sense of belonging and commitment.

3. Cut down on complaining. That does not mean cut it off, but rather the opposite, air it out. Encourage people to make their complaints publicly, to air them. Then train yourself and managers to listen carefully to complaints and put effort into resolving them. Complaining drains energy. Conserve energy by settling the problems beneath the complaints.

4. Appreciate people’s accomplishments. Most people feel that they are not appreciated. How do they get to that conclusion? They experience that they work hard to make a goal, and no one says anything. They wonder if anyone notices or appreciates their level of effort and accomplishment. Reassure them than you do.

5. Similarly, try to catch people doing something right. In my training programs, managers like this little phrase, “Catch them doing something right.” They instinctively realize how often then do the opposite, look for ways to catch people doing something wrong. That is only natural, to want to stop the errors. However, it often becomes the dominant organization culture and is deflating. When I was a store manager, a visit from my regional manager simply meant that I would be left with a long list of errors to correct. He rarely praised anything that I had done right, and I did not feel inspired by his corrective visits.

There are many other things you can do to empower people that I shall write about in future articles. But do these 5 things, and you will be well on your way to empowering people.

You can improve your ability to “Empower Others by Building on Their Strengths,” through our individual and Group Executive Coaching (http://www.EmotionallyIntelligentLeadership.com),
and Self-Study Program (http://www.EagleAlliance.com/services/gec/ssinfo).