Practica suggestions for Empowering Others

Articulate a Clear Vision and Goals:

• Create a picture of a desired future.

• Use word pictures and emotional language to describe the vision.

• Identify specific actions and strategies that will lead to the vision.

• Establish SMART goals.

• Associate the vision and goals with personal values.

Foster Personal Mastery Experiences:

• Break apart large tasks and assign one part at a time.

• Assign simple tasks before difficult tasks.

• Highlight and celebrate small wins.

• Incrementally expand job responsibilities.

• Give increasingly more esponsibility to solve problems.

Model Successful Behaviors

• Demonstrate successful task accomplishment.

• Point out other people who have succeeded.

• Facilitate interaction with other role models.

• Find a coach.

• Establish a mentor relationship

Provide Support

• Praise, encourage, express approval for, and reassure.

• Send letters or notes of praise to family members or coworkers.

• Regularly provide feedback.

• Foster informal social activities to build cohesion.

• Supervise less closely and provide time-slack.

• Hold recognition ceremonies.

Arouse Positive Emotions

• Foster activities to encourage friendship formation.

• Periodically send light-hearted messages.

• Use superlatives in giving feedback.

• Highlight compatiblility between important personal values and organizational goals.

• Clarify impact on the ultimate customer.

• Foster attributes of recreation in work: clear goals, effective scorekeeping and feedback systems, and out-of-bounds behavior.

Provide Information

• Provide all task-relevant information.
• Continuously provide technical information and objective data.
• Pass along relevant cross-unit and cross-functional information.
• Provide access to information or people with senior responsibility.
• Provide access to information from its source.
• Clarify effects of actions on customers.

Provide Resources

• Provide training and development experiences.
• Provide technical and administrative support.
• Provide needed time, space, or equipment.
• Ensure access to relevant information networks.
• Provide more discretion to commit resources.

Connect to outcomes

• Provide a chance to interact directly with those receiving the service or output.
• Provide authority to resolve problems on the spot.
• Provide immediate, unfiltered, direct feedback on results.
• Create task identity, or the opportunity to accomplish a complete task.
• Clarify and measure effects as well as direct outcomes.

Create confidence

• Exhibit reliability and consistency.
• Exhibit fairness and equity.
• Exhibit caring and personal concern.
• Exhibit openness and honesty.
• Exhibit competence and expertise.