How to empower people

• Empowerment entails a more fundamental change than mere delegation.
• First your culture has to adjust, then people have to be developed to overcome their fear of acting without your approval.
• Many employees are already able to take all the responsibility you can give them.
• Get people to realize how much power they have already - through their specialist skills and knowledge.
• The hardest part of empowerment is changing old habits - your willingness to let go and fearful employees to abandon their fears.
• Best to start small for those most unused to this new way of working.
• Trust takes time to build - regular feedback - both to the manager and to the empowered employee will build their confidence.
• When reluctant subordinates continue to look to you for decisions, ask them what they think they should do.
• Supportively praise good ideas before questioning aspects that are unworkable.
• Give them space to do things differently from how you would do them.
• Ensure that the employee leaves your office feeling good about something and more confident to decide in future.