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If leaders want to be successful, they have to be willing to empower others.
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt
To lead others well, we must help them to reach their potential. Scarcity mindset is one in which we feel a need to fight others to make it to the top. In reality, if you give some of your power away to others, there is still plenty to go around.
Leading well is not only about enriching yourself - its about empowering others. We have to shift leadership models away from 'position power' to 'people power' which is giving people leadership roles so that can contribute to their fullest capacity. When you don't empower others, you are creating a barrier that, if it remains long enough, the people will give up and stop trying, or they will leave.
3 Barriers To Empowering Leaders
1 - Desire For Job Security
When you empower great leaders under you, you will develop a pattern of achievement, excellence, and leadership that will be recognized and rewarded. If the teams you lead always seem to succeed, people will figure out that you are leading them well.
2 - Resistance To Change
Change is a price of progress
3 - Lack of Self-Worth
The best leaders have a strong sense of self-worth. To those who have confidence in themselves, change is a stimulus because they believe one person can make a difference and influence what goes on around them. These people are the doers and motivators
Great thing happen when you don't care who gets the credit. The greatest things happen only when you give others the credit.
"Leadership must be based on goodwill ... It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers ... What we need for helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away."
Admiral James B. Stockdale
THE PRESIDENT OF EMPOWERMENT
Abraham Lincoln was known for his humility and willingness to give his power and authority to others. One Lincoln biographer said this of his method:
Enlarging others makes you larger.
Applying The Law of Empowerment
1 - Gauge your level of self-worth, confidence, and value. Work to and take positive steps to add value to yourself.
2- Make a list of the people who work with you and rate each person's potential. If the number's are low, check how you value others. Begin dwelling on people's positive qualities and characteristics. Look for people's greatest strengths and envision how they could leverage those strengths to achieve significant things. Imagine what individuals could become if they made the most of their gifts and opportunities. Then help them to do so.
3 - Make sure that you are doing everything that you can to empower others. Select great people and do everything you can to set them up for success. Train them, give them resources, and help them set accomplishable goals that will help you, them, and the organization. Then give them the responsibility and authority to follow through. And if they at first fail, help them keep trying until they succeed. Once you experience the joy and organizational effectiveness of empowering others, you will have a hard time not giving your power away.
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