How can you promote empowerment

While there is nothing wrong with team encouragement, employees like to feel as though they are personally special -- that they bring something to the company that no one else can. Reach out to employees personally and let them know their unique gifts are appreciated and necessary to the team as a whole.

Display a positive and enthusiastic attitude. Nothing is more damaging to empowerment than negativity and passivity. Leave these two at the door and embrace a positive and enthusiastic management style. You can motivate through empowerment when your employees believe that you believe in them. Empowerment comes when employees have the feeling that they can handle their job and that they have enough knowledge to complete their tasks. Offering employees the ability to further their education by contributing towards course fees or certifications will help them feel not only that they are empowered but that you fully support their journey to better themselves as individuals.

Do you challenge them without overstretching their competencies? Are you tolerant when they make honest mistakes? Put subordinates first — Are you capable of putting your subordinates' success over your own? Can you make tough choices that will benefit your subordinates, even when they do not benefit you?

Behave ethically — Do you have a clear moral compass at work? Do your subordinates know what ethical principles you stand for? Do you apply them rigorously, even when difficult choices need to be made? Empower subordinates — Do you recognize opportunities where your subordinates need to develop independence and autonomy?

Do you given them the chance to make decisions and exercise autonomy? Create value for the community — In your daily work, do you think beyond short-term benefits for you and your department? Do you systematically search for opportunities to create value for others in your organization and beyond?

Are you sensitive to issues of sustainability and corporate social responsibility? Why does servant leadership promote empowerment? Empowerment is a psychological state in employees that has several facets: Employees work towards a goal that is aligned with their own beliefs and values.

They are competent enough to perform their tasks. They can make autonomous decisions in their work environment. They can make a difference through their work for others. Which employees benefit most from servant leadership?

Will you become a servant leader? Help employees set a plan for growth and reward them as they advance. They'll be grateful and apply their newly-learned skills as they step up to leadership opportunities. Many employees, by their very nature, are risk-adverse. That's why they are employees and not entrepreneurs. If they work in an environment where the boss is always correcting them before they have a chance to execute, they will constantly look for approval before taking action or, worse, simply avoid any new or dynamic action.

Give employees the opportunity to try new things in a way that doesn't put the company in danger. Create milestone checkpoints or set up laboratory environments where people can test new ideas and learn from the failures as well as the successes. Then your employees will gain understanding and feel comfortable innovating. Most leaders carry lots of information in their brains. Unfortunately, many employees don't get the benefit of all that information, yet they are expected to take action and make good decisions as if they understood every nuance.

Great leaders figure out how to extract the important information from their minds and share it in a structured and consistent manner. An employee who clearly understands the core values, purpose and direction of the company can easily make consistent decisions and take appropriate action at any junction. It's on you as the leader to impart your vision. That's how you lead. People who don't know what they are supposed to do can't do it very well.

Additionally, they need to know their boundaries so they don't step on others' toes or create inefficiency through redundancy. Establish specific roles and responsibilities with employees so all are clear and can work together cooperatively.