“The biggest single variable of whether or not employees will be creative is whether they perceive they have permission.” David Hills
Another great thought. I had a company owner at one of my classes recently ask me, “How do you get these millennials to do any work.” I ask him if his company had goals they were trying to achieve and did his team know those goals. He said no. I ask him if the people on his team had job descriptions and knew exactly what they were responsible for and how their job impacted the company. He said no. This lack of clarity, then delegation and empowerment, then ownership, then accountability is the biggest challenge across all organizations that I coach. So, what do we do?
Let’s start giving permission. My pastor, Michael Shreve (mwchurch.com), uses guardrails to describe the process we use to delegate and empower our people. First you need Clarity as an individual, department or organization. Know who you are. Why we do what we do and where we are going? What impact or results are we trying to achieve (let me know if you need some help/ coaching on this process bmink@choiceconsultingman.com)? Then each person on your team needs to know what they are expected to do. What do they own? What is their responsibility? What results are they accountable for? Then they need some guardrails/ guidelines on how much empowerment, ownership, creativity, they have to get their job done.
This process does several things. It increases the bandwidth and capacity for the leader/ manager. Your team is empowered and responsible to get things done so you don’t have to do them. (Law of the Lid, John Maxwell 21 Laws of Leadership). Secondly it gives them ownership and empowerment to get things done. To contribute. To make a difference in our organization. The more you give away, empower, encourage and celebrate their results, the more of their heart, their gifting, their passion and their creativity you get. This can be amazingly powerful but also difficult and will take time.
You got this! Let’s take an hour or two and get clear on who we are, why we do this and where we want to go. Create some job descriptions and then delegate, empower and encourage our team to own it and crush it!!
Look for my new book Clarity coming out this fall. https://www.choiceconsultingman.com/clarity/
21 Laws of Leadership
https://store.johnmaxwell.com/The-21-Irrefutable-Laws-of-Leadership–Follow-Them-and-People-Will-Follow-You-10th-Anniversary-Edition-Hardcover_p_2780.html