Power Up! Why Empowering Your Employees Is Critical to Success

Power Up! Why Empowering Your Employees Is Critical to Success

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You've just had a great day at work. You're on top of the world. You think, "I can do anything!" You're ready for that next big assignment. As Hans and Frans would say (am I dating myself too much with this reference?), your workday has Pumped You Up!

Now, pause in that moment of triumph and notice what precisely is running through your head. What sorts of thoughts are you having? You may be thinking some good things about the company, or a customer, or your colleagues -- but the important part is that you are thinking good things about yourself in your work -- you are doing something important; you are capable of successes; you are kicking butt!

In my prior posts (and my dissertation research) I've argued that employee engagement is an attitude, and as such it has rational or thinking components; feeling components like energy, dedication and absorption; and motivational components which together lead to desirable behaviors. The thoughts described above are the essence of the thinking part of employee engagement: an individual perceiving themselves as what academics call "psychologically empowered" in their work environment.

Psychological empowerment has four main aspects, which are described in prior literature and in my interviews with experts as important components of employee engagement:

• competence, or perceiving one's self as up to the task and capable
• meaning, or perceiving one's self as doing personally meaningful work
• self-determination, or perceiving one's self as having autonomy in how work gets done 
• impact, or perceiving one's self as influencing the larger system

So how can leaders increase psychological empowerment and thus employee engagement in their people? Empower them of course! Studies have shown a strong a direct link between structural empowerment (the perception that external factors like company policies are set up to help the employee be successful) and psychological empowerment. Allowing employees things like flexible schedules, simple praise for work well done, and giving them visibility to more senior teams are all easy, cheap methods of empowering staff. 

As one of my expert-interviewees says, it's as simple as "knowing that my company believes in me makes me believe in myself."

Unfortunately, I've heard a lot of arguments why difficult business conditions make it justifiable to disempower employees. I won't argue that sometimes keeping a tight reign on things like expenses can make sense. Too often, though, I've seen fear turn a perfectly good leader into a micro-manager who starts making the sorts of decisions for their employees that he originally hired these capable professionals to make. 

If I start feeling like no one on my team is capable except me, then I need to consider the common denominator -- me. Am I feeling disempowered and passing that down to my staff? Do I have to keep doing that? Or can I do the right thing for my team and the business by choosing to trust them? What small practices can I put into place to turn the tide?

Another thing my research shows is that empowerment is consistently one of the top aspects of employee engagement related to desirable outcomes like retention, word of mouth and proactive-problem-solving. In other words, a little empowerment goes a long way towards business success!