Few things are as beautiful in the working world as a truly empowered team that works well together. Research shows that when employees are empowered, they experience stronger job performance, job satisfaction, and increased commitment to their role and their employer. 

However, if you hear “empowered” and automatically think of delegating more tasks or trying to hand off more authority, you might need to reframe your thinking. In truth, delegation and empowerment are both effective tools in business leadership, but with different goals. Empowerment is allowing employees to act on their own behalf, while delegation is giving them some autonomy to act on your behalf. Empowerment produces leaders, while delegation creates followers. 

So what can be done to truly empower employees, rather than simply delegating more work? Here are some of our top tips for actual empowerment of your team in the ways that influence employee creativity and commitment. 

What is team empowerment? 

At a basic level, team empowerment refers to the process of giving teams the authority, resources, and support they need to make decisions and take ownership over their work. It involves providing team members with the autonomy to make choices, encouraging cross-functional collaboration and participation, and fostering a sense of community, ownership, and accountability. Empowered teams are more likely to innovate, take risks, and problem-solve, because they have overall higher motivation and productivity expectations. 

Sounds like something worth cultivating, right? Let’s dig into some specific ways you can increase team empowerment in your own workplace. 

14 Ideas for empowering your team

1. Clearly define roles and responsibilities. It’s essential to ensure that each team member has a clear understanding of their role and the specific tasks and responsibilities that they’re responsible for. People simply work more effectively when they know what is expected of them and they have specific parameters they are measuring themselves against. If there’s any flexibility in roles, sit down with your team members and learn more about what they want to see in their career. What are their strengths? Then assign roles and tasks that mirror employee strengths whenever possible. 

2. Encourage open communication. Create an environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves. They should be open to sharing ideas, feelings, concerns, and suggestions. Encourage regular communication and practice active listening, as both of these concepts help to build trust and a sense of ownership among team members. If this is something your team needs extra help with, don’t be afraid to bring in some outside help. You can bring in a speaker or session facilitator, or suggest different training or seminars that can support your communication efforts. 

3. Let employees decide how they want to get work done. In the current work landscape, “empowerment” tends to tie in closely with “flexibility”. Today’s workers, especially following the pandemic, are used to working in different arrangements and during different hours. Do they have certain times when they know they’re more productive? Could they dial in and get more done from home, or a group office space? It’s obviously not possible for every industry or every business to allow employees to decide how to do their jobs - but it’s important to try, when you can. Listen to your employees if they have ideas about how they might work better. They know themselves best, and if you trust your team, you should trust that they are going to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. 

4. Allow your group to plan their own work. This is another suggestion that’s not widely applicable, but it might be to you. Obviously if you run a team of doctors or assembly line workers, they have certain tasks that they need to complete and there’s not going to be much flexibility. But if you work in, say, an IT team, talk with your team about the projects they’re most excited about and where they might need more support. Annual reviews are an important practice anyway, but these discussions are also the perfect time to talk to employees about what they want out of work. Do they have thoughts on what they want their next project to be? What excites them about the company and are there initiatives they want to be more involved in? Then, as their supervisor, do your best to advocate for them and make it happen. This will increase trust and loyalty, which is always helpful in amplifying team productivity. 

5. Grant authority when possible. If you work in an organization that has a hierarchy, then the relationships between various managers and employees can get tricky. If you run a department or large team, you have to take extra steps to cultivate a trusting relationship between various employees and their managers. That means that you don’t need to make every decision. What do your mid-level managers think? For people who have direct reports, they should be managing things like annual review cycles and project management conversations. These processes are important parts of leadership, and it’s a good practice to share authority with other members of the team when you can. 

6. Ask for input. One of the simplest ways to empower your team is to ask them for their opinion. Doing so costs nothing and it’s a great way to gain new information and insights when making decisions. The truth is, most people can benefit from being exposed to new perspectives and other outlooks. Make sure your team knows that you value their unique background and experience and you want to hear from them. The caveat here is that the concept needs to be true. If you ask for input regularly but consistently disregard what people share, they’ll quickly understand that their opinion isn’t really valued - which fosters the opposite of empowerment. Genuinely ask what people think when you need more robust information to make decisions - then see how you can apply those insights in a concrete way. 

7. Encourage autonomous decision-making when you can. Empower team members by offering decision-making powers when you can. Encourage your group to make decisions within their scope of work and make sure to provide support and guidance when needed. This will help to foster a sense of ownership and accountability. However, there are a couple caveats that come with this. For one thing: employees will only make decisions that are best for the bottom line when they are fully informed and have the right information. So, you need to ensure that your team is in the loop and educated enough on a topic to make good decisions. Secondly, employees will be afraid to make decisions if they are constantly worried about negative impacts or repercussions. You need to make sure your staff knows that you have their back and are ready to support their decisions. This may mean trying new things that won’t always work. There is some degree of risk-taking that everyone in the organization must be comfortable with if you want truly empowered employees who can effectively make successful decisions. 

8. Share the meaning in shared work. Do employees understand why they’re doing what they’re doing? Does the company have a mission or value statement? Does that statement apply to the teams within the overall organization? It’s proven that people do a better job when they can anticipate the ways that their work impacts overall goals and objectives. This is why it’s also a good idea to tie each employee’s personal objectives to larger company goals. For example, if one of the company’s larger goals is to increase sales in the coming year, you can talk to your sales team about how that translates to a specific amount of calls, meetings, and signed contracts. Or, if your business is trying to cut costs, have project managers share the specific ways that they can find to lower costs in their own work. Create goals around these specific measures and then keep everyone in the loop on how their efforts are contributing to bigger efforts. 

9. Cultivate “citizenship” behavior. Also sometimes called organizational citizenship behavior, this concept refers to voluntary actions that employees take to benefit their organization beyond their formal job responsibilities. It involves going above and beyond the basic requirements of the job to contribute to the overall success and well-being of the organization. Basically, it means that employees care about the company as more than just a place to work. This can take various forms like altruism (where employees want to help each other and offer support) or civic virtue (where employees actively participate in organizational activities). All of these behaviors contribute to a more positive work environment, and they can be cultivated. Look for ways to enhance teamwork and collaboration, as well as a sense of belonging within the organization. Team retreats are a great start here, but regular team social outings, clubs and committees, and community volunteer opportunities are all good ways to increase citizenship behavior. Follow our blog to learn some ways to overcome teamwork challenges. 

10. Increase confidence in and out of the workplace. Confident employees are empowered employees. If your employees are lacking confidence, they aren’t going to want to make independent decisions or share their opinions. A strong manager will try to increase confidence in their team, and some of this happens outside the workplace. Help employees with their personal growth by providing clear and constructive feedback, offering training and development opportunities, and celebrating achievements. Bonus points if you can drum up some initiatives that will increase confidence outside of the work environment, such as employee health and well-being programs, intramural sports clubs, and community involvement. It’s also a good practice to encourage a strong work-life balance. Employees who have passions outside of work are more likely to be confident and assertive. 

11. Build trust in your management relationships. It’s not going to be possible to cultivate team empowerment if your employees don’t trust their managers. At the end of the day, people need to feel “safe” to make their own decisions - even if that can lead to an error. The only way people can be vulnerable in these scenarios is if they have real trust in their supervisor and know they will advocate for them. Encourage anyone who has supervisor responsibilities in your organization to develop personal relationships with their teams. They should be passionate about mentoring and helping the next generation of workers, and advocating for their career as they would their own. Have real conversations about each teams’ performance. Who should be getting promoted, and why? Who is struggling, and could use extra resources? Make work more personal, and your teams will have more trust - ultimately leading to empowerment. Learn some great team building duties for leaders and other ways to improve team cohesion on our blog. 

12. Don’t consider “extra work” empowerment. Some managers feel that throwing new projects at an employee is a vote of confidence. They think a great way to empower people is to challenge them or give them new responsibilities. The truth is, though, that employees are less likely to see things this way. The way to reward reliable performance isn’t to add more for people to do. Think carefully about how you distribute work and what message you’re sending with bandwidth management. You want your team to know that you have faith in them and trust them to do a good job, but also respect their current bandwidth and expectations. Have transparent discussions about what types of work team members get excited about, and learn how you can give them more of that. 

13. Give positive feedback on routine tasks and reward achievements. Any parent knows that it’s essential to give praise for the behavior you want to see, and a corporate environment is no different. When people do things the way you want them to, be generous with compliments. When teams meet shared deadlines or project milestones, make everyone aware and create a celebratory environment. For example, bring in lunch on the day of a big product launch, or give everyone handwritten thank you notes when they work late. Make it a point to look for the results you want to encourage, and then reward them (the more public, the better). 

14. Lead by example. This tactic might be the most important of all. Be a good leader, mentor, and employee if you want your teams to do the same. Show that you’re a good steward for the company, caring about what’s best for the group instead of the individual. Participate in company events, be enthusiastic in team meetings, and be generous with your time whenever possible. This will encourage the same in those around you. 

Tailored retreats for empowered teams

One of the best ways to hit several of these tactics at once is to plan an engaging team retreat. Bringing everyone together in person allows people to get to know each other and become more invested in the company and each other. At the same time, you can schedule training (on things like communication) or plan group volunteering efforts. We suggest hosting at least one or two comprehensive retreats per year, and Surf Office is always here to help with logistics. Give our team a call if you’re looking for new ways to bring teams together and empower them for the greater good.