empowering your employees to empower themselves
TRANSCRIPT
Empowering Your Employees to Empower ThemselvesProfessional Teleservice Management AssociationMarch 2016
Amy Castrowww.Amy-Castro.com
Empower(verb)
•to give power or authority to; authorize, especially by legal or official means.•to enable or permit
Your role is to encourage and support the decision-making environment,
and to give employees the tools and knowledge they need to make and act upon their own decisions.
-Marshall Goldsmith, PhD, Leadership Expert
#1 Mistake
Not realizing empowerment begins in the hiring process
6 Keys for Empowering Employees to Empower Themselves
1. Hire for Empowerment
Interviewing tip!
Ask questions that assess level of empowerment at their previous job
2. Create an Open Communication Environment
How do you create an OPEN COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT?
Listening
Sharing knowledgeProblem-solving
Encouraging
Expressing concerns in productive ways
Being receptive to new ideas
Empathizing
Sharing content
What else?
Risk tolerant Requiring accountabilityAccepting
responsibility
3. Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities
Empowerment is individual . . .
Define “Empowerment Zones” with EACH
EmployeeRed requires management approval
Yellow not yet defined
Green employee empowered to act/decide
4. Maintain Boundaries
Stay in Your Zone
(and help employees stay in theirs!)
Responsibility is something you give. Accountability is something you take.
–Amy Castro
Tweet it @PracticalComm
Benefits of AccountabilityFor Employees
PerformanceParticipation InvolvementCommitment to workCreativity and innovationMorale and satisfactionSelf esteem- feeling of competency
- US Office of Personnel Management
Benefits of Accountability
What about for you?
5. Trust Your Employees
What if you don’t?
6. Respond Effectively to Success & Failure
If you want employees to be successful in achieving their full potential, you have to make it safe for them to fail.
– Amy Castro
Tweet it @PracticalComm
Turning Failure into Success1. Be sure they own it2. Ask what they learned from it3. Ask how they fixed it 4. Ask how they’re going to prevent it from
happening again
Success does not consist in never making mistakes, but in never making the same one a second time.
– George Bernard Shaw
Rewarding Success
Opportunity
Appreciation
Recognition
Give your employees OARs and they’ll keep rowing forward!
– Amy Castro
Need more communication tools and techniques?Check out my book:http://www.amy-castro.com/books-and-products/
Connect with me on social media
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Linkedin: AmyPCastro
Twitter: @PracticalComm
Web: www.Amy-Castro.com