There are two types of bosses. There are those who micromanage and perfect every detail at every level as far as they can. Then there are those who plot the course and simply make sure that everyone on the ship knows how to get them there. The truth is that only the latter is truly going to be able to deal with the increasing demands of a growing company. If you want your business to have a bigger future, you have to trust your employees to do their job. But trust isn’t enough. Sometimes, you have to empower them as well.
Make your vision clear
One reason that employees don’t feel empowered in a role is that they have a limited understanding of it. This is often down to poor communication of that role. When you’re giving someone a task and set goals, make sure that they know where it fits in with the wider objectives of the business and how it contributes to your vision. This gets a lot more invested in what they’re doing and makes them feel empowered because they understand the significance of it.
Allow them some control
Not all employees work as well in the same environment. Measures like flexible time and remote working might not work as well for your company, but it’s worth considering what flexible measures could allow employees a degree of control. Bringing their own devices, allowing them a choice of different work environments, and more can help them feel in control of their own career.
Give them the tools for the job
Every business should be making the shift from individual dependent to processes dependent. So, for instance, it’s not down to one HR manager who knows all the ins-and-outs of keeping employee management running well. It’s down to a system that allows anyone in that position to work as well as the last person. There’s a lot less risk to keeping your business process dependent. ERP software is one of the tools helping employers streamline processes and giving employees the full-scope of operations. Choosing between competing models like SAP vs Oracle comes down to defining and better understanding your needs. ERP software helps systematize processes like sales, production, payroll and more. But it also helps you understand how they’re doing at a glance so you don’t have to get stuck in and interrupt your employees at their work to find out for yourself.
Keep communication clean
Communication also fails when it has to be taken through various channels just to get a message across or ask a question. Employees shouldn’t have to check with a manager before asking someone who can provide them a more direct answer, even if it’s in a different team of the business. Business communication tools like Yammer or Slack make it a lot easier to build direct channels. They also help employees keep all different forms of in-work communication in one client, rather than having to jump from a chat engine to their emails to a project management screen. That means there are a lot fewer knots in the process that require a managerial hand to fix.
Empowered employees allow you to focus on the big picture. You can work on the business, rather than inside it, giving you the perspective to see potential growth and opportunities for change that will benefit everyone.
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