Have you ever had that supervisor who incessantly micromanaged the “ish” out of your work project? I mean all up in the weeds of every minute, step, and detail towards completion – as if to suggest you’re either incompetent or untrustworthy. What is that about? And how on earth is that successful team management?
Well, I’ll tell you this. It’s about an overwhelming need for control; it is not at all effective in empowering aspiring leaders at any level.
Team empowerment starts with stable leadership that is secure in their role and capable of outlining a clear vision towards a common goal. It’s galvanizing a group of inspired experts who are vested in the success of any given project, initiative, or organization.
The foundation of team empowerment is inspiring leadership. Inspiring teams to produce their best end product. Inspiring teams to learn from their failures and turn them into innovative opportunities. Inspiring teams to embrace how success is so much greater when working together as a whole.
Micromanagers are the antithesis of leaders of empowered teams. Here’s why we must all avoid being stifling leaders who delay progress by employing dictator-style management. No one wants to work for you! I mean, no one!!!
To those leaders who genuinely want to watch their teams shine, here are three things you can do to reinforce your interest in empowering the experts who report to you:
- Present the vision
- Receive input on the vision
- Nurture the implementation of the collective vision
Stick to these three fundamental principles, and you will take your team to new heights with each and every collaborative project. The benefits are that you will build trust, distribute a sense of responsibility, and inspire innovative thinking because you’ve created a safe space for belonging.
PRESENT THE VISION
Whenever I’m called to lead a team through a new project, inevitably, there’s an onslaught of questions, from inquiring about the goal to indicating what success looks like. For a large-scale event intended to garner interest in over 800 new homes in Stapleton Denver’s 11th neighborhood (Beeler Park), I organized a team of event specialists, branding experts, media buyers, and internal marketing associates to help deploy a new neighborhood launch. The most pressing question for everyone: “How many attendees do you want to draw?” and “How do we measure sales conversions?” What I knew from these initial questions was that I needed to paint a clear picture of my expectations that would demonstrate success for our builder partners. I had to clearly express why 500 attendees would translate into a successful event in the eyes of our builder sales and marketing teams.
But more importantly, I needed to paint a picture for how our team would track leads to convey event performance in terms of sales conversions from the neighborhood launch event. This led me to provide context for the vision and goals – providing an overview of the seasonality of home sales and builder model traffic.
This would be a fall season event held on the heels of the highest-selling period (summer). Once the team knew my high-level vision for what stellar performance looked like, I had to be receptive to their input on the details of what would make success possible. From campaign branding to media rollout, I had to entrust the team with dreaming up the possibilities of delivering a distinctly successful event.
RECEIVE INPUT ON THE VISION
“Feedback is a gift. Ideas are the currency of our next success. Let people see you value both feedback and ideas.” – Jim Trinka and Les Wallace
Outlining a vision for the team not only provides a clear objective, but it also lays a foundation for input. When you’re open to input, you leave room for big ideas and techniques you may not have been privy to before. A reception to team input is a reception to learning. This is the most reciprocal nature of leadership. It’s not directing with one-way instruction (with a dose of excessive micromanagement).
Leadership is being comfortable in the realm of not having all the answers, yet allowing your team to rise to the occasion of providing solutions where clarity is needed.
One of the most rewarding breakthroughs I experienced in my leadership journey of receiving input was when our event management company introduced me to the RASCI matrix as part of the event planning process. What RASCI provides is a structure for project management and team structure by identifying who is:
- Responsible (assigned task)
- Accountable (delivers results)
- Support (administrative)
- Consulted (provides input)
- Informed (kept apprised)
Isn’t it Brene Brown who says, “Clarity is kind”? That’s what resonated with me about RASCI. And I welcomed the input of taking this approach as it helped the team identify our roles in working together more efficiently. Most importantly, it kept me in my lane as the supervising role (Informed, not micromanaging).
I highly recommend the RASCI matrix to any team supervisor wanting to seamlessly implement an empowering process for teams to rise to the occasion of any given project.
NURTURE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COLLECTIVE VISION
To nurture teams is to encourage team members to own their expertise, celebrating insightful contributions, and project milestones. This can occur with one-on-one weekly (or bi-weekly) meetings, demonstrating to the team that you’re making yourself available and present for updates and feedback. The one-on-one format allows for tailored mentorship to both the individual and their assigned project task.
These one-on-one mentoring meetings are supplemented by monthly (or bi-weekly) group meetings. And what I love about the group meetings is opening with a check-in question. It can be anything from “What’s your word of the day?” to “What are you looking forward to this weekend?” The point of the human connection question is just that. It helps the group be vulnerable and find commonalities in what they share. Or it can reveal where a team member may need a little added support from the collective team. Because we’re human, and it’s okay when we may need to lift each other up along the process of completing a project.
As a side note, one of the most important things for the leader to remember is to be consistent in supporting group sharing. In other words, don’t turn around and use what’s shared against the team member who opted for vulnerability.
As noted in a 2016 Harvard Business Review article on leadership competencies, “A leader with high ethical standards conveys a commitment to fairness, instilling confidence that both they and their employees will honor the rules of the game. Similarly, when leaders clearly communicate their expectations, they avoid blindsiding people and ensure that everyone is on the same page. In a safe environment employees can relax, invoking the brain’s higher capacity for social engagement, innovation, creativity, and ambition.”
Sharing, both personally and professionally, is part of working as a team towards the collective vision. This builds trust amongst the group and with the leader – where everyone experiences the morale boost of bringing their full self to the team. And this opens the door wide open for team members to demonstrate a willingness – no, more so of an eagerness to contribute their valued expertise.
Then let the celebrated contributions abound! Think happy hour celebrations, company-wide shout-outs, thank you notes, verbal acknowledgments in group settings. You get the idea.
We’ve all experienced that one uninspiring boss. And while the experience might have left a lasting mark, I say allow it to also leave a positive impression on choosing an alternative style of leadership. As humans, we generally enjoy team-oriented experiences that present us with a clear goal, an inspiring vision, or a defined objective. We love to rally around a cause and a purpose. The leaders who recognize the rallying power of presenting a compelling vision are the leaders who garner the respect, support, and can-do spirit of the teams they lead.
This isn’t a dictatorship. The vision requires a collective voice – with a little bit of tweaking that factors in the vast expertise of the team. Because, as humans, we don’t respond well to simply being told what to do. We have to understand the why behind the what before we can even begin to consider jumping on board with anything. Otherwise, the dictator leader is foolishly “leading” a reluctant or complacent group of followers that are not bought in.
Above all else, inspiring leaders choose to place value on the importance of human connections. They seek to understand each team member at an individual level, at a human level, employing empathy when vulnerability occurs, and celebrating the big fat wins when the team knocks it out of the ballpark with a group project.
Leaders who empower teams are people who have a heart for other people! Be a leader with heart. Be an empowering leader! Your team will thank you. Start asking your team for input on strategic plans, operation strategies, etc. Listen for new ideas and be open to learning an innovative approach. Invite the entire team to bounce ideas off of other ideas and work together in redefining a collective vision that elicits buy-in from the whole. When you foster a work environment that maximizes the varied talents and expertise of the team, while relinquishing your own authority, you create a sense of connection amongst the team and build trust in your leadership.
Tasha L. Jones
NOTE: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.
