Empowerment – Here are 4 tips on empowerment:

1. Keep your eye out for things that work. When your direct report or peer does something new that works, compliment them. Then, if it is not apparent, ask them, “How did you do that?” This simple question can do a world of good. It lets the person talk about their accomplishment without seeming to brag.

2. As they explain how they accomplished something, draw them out. Pretend you are a midwife and draw out their baby, the details of their accomplishment. Ask follow-up questions. You will be surprised at how often the person learns from telling their story. They see more clearly what good steps they took. They too get an aha. This naturally reinforces their desire to do this sort of thing again and to be even more creative next time.

3. What we give attention to, grows. This is an established law of psychology. So you can see why good doses of criticism seldom work. You and the other person are paying attention to what does not work. Of course, you want to fix it. But what if you spent more time and energy brainstorming about possible ways to prevent problems from manifesting in the first place instead of how to fix them? If you put more energy into thinking about what works, that will grow. And things that work will start to multiply.

4. Again, concentrate on appreciating people because as number 3 above says, “What we give attention to, grows.” So give attention to successes by appreciating them more often. In most organizations, people get a lot of criticism. Change that to a few corrective remarks and many statements of appreciation.

There are many other things you can do to empower people that I shall write about in future articles. But do these 4 things, and you will be well on your way to empowering people.

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