Simple Ways to Empower Your Team
Autonomy, or the ability to make decisions on your own, can directly influence your team’s productivity and longevity. Studies show that independence relieves stress and gives employees a greater sense of purpose, which can translate to lower turnover rates and higher job satisfaction. If you’re looking for a simple way to increase employee morale, give them greater freedom by implementing the following pointers.
- Start small. According to the economic theory of loss aversion, we’re much more disappointed when we lose something than happy when we gain something. Implement a gradual and controlled process to increase autonomy so that the company doesn’t panic and rescind autonomy later on. Be careful: a team’s collective output is greatly hindered if you take away power they already have.
- Maintain a structure. The more autonomy your employees have, the more fulfilled they’ll be. But too much independence all at once can be overwhelming. Make sure to establish a strategic direction, a timeline, and check-ins while simultaneously allowing your team to decide how they’ll tackle their work.
- Encourage employees to set their own goals. Micromanagement is listed among the top three reasons why people resign. Step back and take care of the high-level framework for a project while assigning your team the task of setting their own goals. This will help your team stay intrinsically motivated, rather than working for just a paycheck.
- Give your team a perceived feeling of choice. The most important aspect of autonomy at work is the feeling that you are able to make your own decisions, even if you’re not in complete control. This goes along with maintaining a structure when giving your team independence. Create a framework for decision making, and let your employees choose their plan of execution.
Takeaway: Empowering employees is positively correlated with their job satisfaction. Keep your team motivated and happy by giving them independence along with encouragement and guidance.
Vocabulary:
Autonomy – the freedom, right, or independence to make your own decisions and control your own work, “The new manager gave the design team complete autonomy over the website layout.”
longevity – long life, or the ability to last a very long time in a particular career, job, or situation, “Excellent health benefits and a friendly atmosphere contribute to the longevity of employees at this company.”
turnover rates – the percentage of workers who leave a company and are replaced by new employees over a specific period, “A stressful work environment usually leads to high turnover rates.”
morale – the amount of confidence, enthusiasm, and team spirit that a person or group has at a particular time, “Winning the complex contract greatly boosted the entire office’s morale.”
pointers – helpful pieces of advice, practical hints, or suggestions, “My colleague gave me some excellent pointers on how to prepare for the presentation.”
loss aversion – a psychological concept where the emotional pain of losing something is much stronger than the pleasure of gaining the exact same thing, “Because of loss aversion, investors often hold onto failing stocks longer than they should.”
gradual – happening, changing, or moving by small degrees or slow steps over time; not sudden, “Learning a new language is a gradual process that requires daily practice.”
rescind – to officially cancel, take back, or revoke a law, order, privilege, or agreement, “The university decided to rescind the student’s scholarship after his grades dropped.”
hindered – delayed, slowed down, or made it difficult for someone or something to make progress, “The heavy snowstorm hindered our travel plans over the holiday weekend.”
tackle – to make a big effort to deal with, handle, or solve a difficult problem or task, “We need to work together to tackle this bug before the software goes live on Friday.”
Micromanagement – a negative management style where a boss closely controls, observes, and checks every tiny detail of an employee’s work, “Micromanagement makes employees feel stressed, frustrated, and uncreative.”
resign – to officially and voluntarily leave a job or position, “She decided to resign from her position to go back to school full-time.”
intrinsically motivated – driven to do an activity because of internal rewards, such as personal satisfaction, passion, or enjoyment, rather than external rewards like money or praise, “Artists are often intrinsically motivated to paint simply because they love creating art.”
execution – the act of carrying out, performing, or completing a plan, order, or design, “The strategy was perfect, but the poor execution caused the product launch to fail.”
Empowering – giving someone the authority, confidence, or freedom to do something and take control of their situation, “Empowering front-line workers allows them to solve customer complaints much faster.”
positively correlated – a relationship where two things change in the same direction; as one increases, the other increases as well, “Studies show that regular physical exercise is positively correlated with better sleep quality.”