I stumbled across an interesting article on MIT Sloan Management Review about leaders resisting empowering their virtual teams.

Personally, I would not call them leaders if they were not empowering and providing autonomy. That aside, it is an informative read.

As the authors Payal N. Sharma, Lauren D’Innocenzo, and Bradley L. Kirkman state, much has been written about the benefits of empowering employees. The benefits include increased trust, job satisfaction, commitment, self-efficacy, creativity, agility, and performance. It increases knowledge sharing which is a competitive advantage as smart decisions can be made rapidly.

Despite the tomes written about the benefits, the catch is that leaders resist this approach especially when managing employees who are working remotely.

Whether these leaders were good leaders or not when their teams were physically co-located, they now have concerns about losing power and control and taking new risks in the virtual environment as they cannot see their team members directly.

The authors drew on research to identify the reasons behind the resistance.

The reasons fell into three areas. A lack of motivation to lead others, a dislike of leading or a lack of buy-in. A fear of loss of control – by giving their teams control they had less. Concerns about the risk of employees making costly mistakes that could reflect badly on them as the leader.

The other catch is that these leaders are suffering from the long hours they are working now that they have a virtual team. It seemed easier to do the job within designated working hours when employees where in-person. Now consumed by virtual meetings, work is eating into what used to be personal time. Despite this fact, they are not empowering their team members to ease the load and let them focus on the things good leaders should focus on. Instead, they take on more themselves as they feel that is the only way to get it right first time.

The authors suggest a number of ways organisations can make it easier to distribute power. These are: reframe their motives; boost their sense of control; and make empowerment feel less risky. Whilst I do not disagree with those interventions, based on my experience working with leaders in many different industries and organisations, I would like to suggest the following five ways to enable leaders to empower.

1.   Leadership development

Leadership development is woefully lacking. Most leaders – people leaders – attain that position in their late 20s or early 30s. The first leadership development they receive is in their 40s. Therefore, we give our ‘leaders’ over a decade to embed bad habits from their closest role model which is their bad boss! Most of these leaders strive to do the best they can but they are left alone to do so.

Organisations must invest in timely, effective, and evolving leadership development programs. Access to leadership development should be provided before a person becomes a leader. They should be prepared, and their development needs identified. The program must address the key leadership traits of good leaders and monitor leadership performance against these traits. The program must constantly evolve and improve to ensure it is relevant and meeting the needs of the organisation.

The program must include leadership development around empowerment and trust.

2.   Education

Not just leaders, but everyone in the organisation should be educated on the benefits of empowerment and what empowerment looks and feels like.

For example, there is often confusion between delegation and empowerment. As a leader, you can delegate a task but that does not mean you have empowered your team members to undertake that task as they see best. Delegation without empowerment is a demotivating. Delegation without empowerment is a leader assigning a task and then dictating how the task should be carried out – step by step.

Empowerment provides employees with opportunity to be creative and innovative. Without empowerment there is no learning.

Everyone must be educated that empowerment does not mean ‘management by abdication’ which is often the perception when it has been done badly. Good leaders empower but ensure their team members know that they are available and accessible whenever they need assistance, guidance or help in removing an obstacle. Empowerment does not mean employees are being left to flounder without support.

It is important to educate everyone that effective empowerment takes time. It can take leaders and team members some time to become comfortable with the new ways of working. For some teams this can be seen as a big shift as there is an ownership change.

3.   Reduce the risk

The feeling of risk for both the leader and the team member can be reduced by providing parameters, or guardrails, within which employees can take and make decisions.

I wrote about this in an article for Remote Report.

You can reduce the fear of risk by applying the ‘Waterline Principle’ instituted by American engineer and entrepreneur Bill Gore the co-founder of W.L. Gore and Associates, the maker of innovative products such as Gore-Tex fabrics.

Imagine your organization is a ship and you are the captain. You can empower employees to make decisions if they are shooting above the waterline. The decisions won’t sink the ship so the risk can be sanctioned. If the decision should go awry and results in a hole in the side of the ship above the waterline, it can be fixed.

If the decision is shooting below the waterline, it is a risk that cannot be sanctioned, as it could blow a hole in the side of the ship that is below the waterline and could sink the ship. Below-the-waterline-decisions need to be referred to the ‘captain’ so that risk can be assessed, and the right decision made.

Empowerment with guardrails such as the ‘waterline principle’ reduce the risk aversion for both the leader and employee.

As the captain, you can also define where the waterline is based on factors including an employee’s position, experience, and level of expertise. A junior employee will have a different waterline to that of your senior managers.

The waterline principle can also be applied to deciding what issues need your attention as opposed to those that can be left to your team to resolve. If an issue has occurred, the criticality can be determined by asking whether the damage is above or below the waterline.

If something goes wrong above the waterline such as a broken computer or a jammed door, the ship will not sink and therefore the issue can be dealt with by your team and does not need to be referred to you as the captain. If something goes wrong below the waterline that could sink the ship and cause injury or loss of life, then your attention is required. You and the team will be far more effective and efficient by following this principle.

4.   Vulnerability, transparency, and trust

Leaders empowering their team members especially for the first time must be transparent about what they are endeavouring to do, and this will entail an element of vulnerability.

You cannot try and move from a command-and-control position to one of empowerment and trust overnight without causing widespread concern and consternation. Everyone will wonder what alien has inhabited the leader’s body.

Leaders need to start by explaining why they want to provide team members with empowerment, autonomy and trust and then reveal how they intend to do it. This is when leaders should seek the feedback from the team. Involve them in the change and make them active participants. Instigate a process of continual feedback.

This will be a learning journey for the leader and the team. As a leader will not always have all the answers or steer the ship in the right direction. That is ok, but you will have to openly acknowledge the situation. This is where you are vulnerable. Vulnerability is often perceived as a sign of weakness, when in fact it is a sign of great courage. You will share the fact that you are on a learning journey and will not always make the right decisions and you will make mistakes along the way. Vulnerability and transparency build a foundation of trust between the leader and the team.

Without trust you cannot empower. Micromanagement shouts “I do not trust you.” You must trust your employees to do the right thing and most of them will. When they know you have put your trust in them, they will raise their game to levels you could not have imagined.

Remember, trust takes time to build and seconds to break. Leaders must be consistent and not be inclined to pull in the reins at the slightest sign of a crisis. When the going gets tough, you need to retain the trust of the team, not destroy it. Returning to a prescription delegate just says to employees that you only trust them when it is plain sailing but when the sea gets a little rough you will take charge again.

5.   Do it together

Effective empowerment is achieved when the leader understands the expectations of their team members and how they wish to be empowered. Every is different and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to empowerment.  Leaders must discuss this with each and every employee on a regular basis. It is essential that team members feel heard and know that they can reach out for help whenever they need it.

It is also important that leaders understand the capability of each of their employees. In another article for Remote Report, I explored the concept of “capability invisibility.” This is a term used to describe a situation in which employees’ skills., capabilities and competences are not visible or known. As a leader you need to know the capability of your employees so you don’t give them a task that will overwhelm them and cause excessive stress. It is often safe to ask your employee to step into the stretch zone, but you do not want them to feel as if they have been dropped into the terror zone.

You need to know your employees’ skills so you can fully utilise them when you are delegating. There is nothing more demotivating for an employee who has worked hard to master a work-related skill to not be able to use it. Underutilisation is an engagement killer. Even your highest performers can become quickly disengaged if they don’t feel their skills and capabilities are being utilised in the best way.

As you embark on this journey together, don’t forget to celebrate the wins along the way as a team. Celebrate the setbacks as collective learning opportunities and moments for growth.

Summary

The need for effective empowerment is paramount now that most leaders will be leading teams that are distributed across various locations.

There is no place for micromanagement in any team but the necessity for empowerment is elevated when team members are working remotely all – or part of – the time.

Invest in developing leaders who can empower and provide employee autonomy. Education everyone about empowerment and reduce the sense of risk with guardrails.

Lead with vulnerability, transparent and trust.

There are many things that support empowerment that I have not covered in this article but have certainly done so in previous posts such as clarity of expectations, psychological safety, agency and choice, flexibility, adaptability and agility.