The difference between delegation and empowerment lies in the level of control and autonomy given to the direct report.

What Must A Leader Consider When Deciding Which To Use?

• Direct report knowledge and skills
• The amount of control and autonomy required
• The amount of control and autonomy the leader is willing to give.

What Will Prevent A Leader From Empowering A Direct Report

• Fear of being outperformed – the person might be better than me
• Fear of Failure – if the person fails, it will reflect badly on me
• Fear of Redundancy – I might be considered as not needed any more

All these thoughts point directly to an attitude of Taking instead of Giving.

At Legitimate Leadership, our development discussions work towards moving people from taking to giving.

Delegating a task means assigning someone to do the work (most likely your work). In doing so, you can instruct the person to do it exactly as you want, or to formulate the result. Give it back once done.

However, when we empower people, we follow a defined process that ultimately involves handing over decision-making power. We follow this process to set the person up for success.

The name of the game is “Incremental Suspension Of Control”

Training and Coaching help leaders empower others by addressing their ability gaps and the “Why” and “How”.

Training on the skills required brings the knowledge to perform the task,

and

Coaching gives personalised guidance and support to build confidence.

The question is often asked, ” Who do I give a new/challenging/urgent/important task to?”

The Legitimate Leadership answer is for the person who has never done it before.

The pushback is why, if I give it to a seasoned operator, I’m assured it will meet the standard I require.

Sharing this with someone who hasn’t done it before will take my time and effort.

YES, it will – that’s your job as a leader – to EMPOWER your people.

We develop our teams by empowering as many people as we can to work at a higher level.

When you choose the person to empower, discuss with them and make sure they understand it will be a process and that they will be guided and assessed at every step. It is important to agree that it is NOT an instantaneous dumping of work and control, but rather a path to follow. The length and duration of this path depend on the maturity of the person you are dealing with. Some will take longer than others.

It is essential to discuss this with the person and obtain their consent to walk the path. Spending time and effort on an unwilling, half-hearted attempt at empowerment is demotivating and reduces one’s enthusiasm to do more. Next time, you might think, ” Let me do it and get on with it.”

By NOT setting the scene thoroughly, one affects one’s own passion for developing people. You also fail to prepare the people around you for their next steps in their careers, and if there is nobody to replace you, you cannot move on.