Essential Element #1: Embedded Empowerment in Radical Leadership

“Empowerment is not about giving people power; it’s about unleashing the power that already resides within them.” - Anonymous

Reframe: You need to go deep enough to ensure this sticks.

The simplistic view of empowerment involves granting leaders a greater role in the company's operations. This includes providing them with enhanced titles, additional rewards, and significantly more accountability. While this approach may yield short-term benefits, it is unlikely to cultivate the autonomous company that you envision as a founder.

To realise that dream, you need to embed deeper and ensure that empowerment is established at three levels deep.

These are:

Leadership Level: Empowering leaders by giving them the autonomy to effectively lead their teams. This involves providing leadership development programs and granting decision-making authority pertaining to their scope.

Individual Level: Empower individual employees by acknowledging their contributions, providing professional development opportunities, and fostering initiative. This personal empowerment results in greater job satisfaction and performance.

Organisational Level: Empowering the entire organisation by cultivating a culture of trust, transparency, and a shared vision. Leaders at this level establish policies that promote innovation and collaborative decision-making.

Embedded empowerment is not a short-term project but a long-term commitment. This is not a quick fix to a current challenge; it’s the long-term solution to the current over-dependant company you have in place.

If you get this right, this is a big commitment with an even bigger reward for all involved.

Rethink: You cannot be partially empowered.

Empowerment is a binary state. You have either empowered them or you haven’t; there are no degrees of empowerment.

The question you need to consider is, “Have I truly empowered my team, or have I merely ‘pseudo-empowered’ them by assigning some responsibilities without providing the necessary resources, decision-making authority, or incentives to achieve real empowerment?”

If that is the case, you have unintentionally created a worse situation than if you had tried to empower them.

Pseudo-empowerment is one of the most demotivating states for employees, as they face added expectations without having the authority to meet or exceed them.

This occurs because CEOs/MDs fear losing control or to be more accurate fear the potential consequences of not being in control. This mindset is restrictive and generates uncertainty from the very beginning.

The empowering mindset is that they have the skills and potential to do this, and if they need any support or guidance along the way, I will be here to help.

It comes down to one simple question. Do you trust them enough to let go?

If the answer is not yet available, then lean into what’s missing before you empower them.

You generally get one shot at this, so ensure you have created the optimal conditions to give this the best chance of success.

Refocus:  We can still see you!

For most CEOs, MDs, and founders, the hardest part of the empowerment process is the post-empowerment phase, when they need to be less visible and less present in the operational heart of the business.

This is tough because this is where you have built the business from. This is what you know and what feels comfortable. But you know that if you stay too present or too visible the team members that you have empowered will find their job harder. You will inadvertently send the message that you don’t trust them just by your presence.

The solution is to ensure you have enough other strategic-level projects or initiatives that positively engage your attention and provide opportunities for others to learn and lead in your absence.

This is your opportunity to reinvent your role and relationship with your business, which can be both energising and daunting. However, it is crucial that you don’t revert to your previous role just because you are uncertain about how to utilise your newly created extra time.

Truly embedded empowerment doesn’t feel comfortable in week 1, but if you have chosen it well, it does feel better by week 2 and truly liberating by quarter 2.

The key is to shift your mindset to one that focuses more on the rewards and upside of embedded empowerment and less on the risks.