Ask most leadership teams and you will get a difference of opinion in the room. The two concepts have become interchangeable in everyday language, which is precisely the problem. What we say may not actually be what we mean. So ask yourself directly: is delegation empowerment?

A delegated task still requires the leader’s sign off at every stage. An empowered decision does not. One keeps the business dependent on a single person’s availability. The other allows it to move without them. Therefore delegation and empowerment are two different things. To build a successful team or organisation, leaders need to multiply their leadership through others. To do that well, leaders need to let go and let others grow. Effective leaders resist the temptation to be the fixer and become the one who looks for opportunities to delegate.

To read more about delegation and empowerment on Linkedin from myself click here – https://lnkd.in/p/eGzz2_ke

The cost of confusing the two often shows up quietly. A team that cannot function when the leader is unreachable is not resilient, it is exposed. Some leaders quietly believe that being needed constantly is a sign of strength. It is not. It is a structural weakness. Do you know a team or an organisation that is like this?

Where is your pinch point, in your team and in your organisation? Most companies carry one. Left unexamined, a culture builds around it.

Empower connects here to Attract, the second and third pillars of the L.E.A.D.E.R.S. Framework. A team trusted with real authority is a team other capable people want to join. Talented candidates notice quickly whether a business hands over authority, or only tasks. It does not take long to realise that with good leadership, talent should not come and go, rather it should come and grow.

Where you see successful teams, you know that there is a leader close by, that enjoys delegation and empowerment.

To read more about this key area of empowerment on a previous blog of mine click here –  https://www.keepthinkingbig.com/empowering-leader-team-development/

Every day a capable person waits for approval on something they are already qualified to decide is a day their growth, and your time, are both wasted.

This week, define in writing one decision your team can now make without you, so the authority is real rather than assumed.

Tony Lynch, Creator of the L.E.A.D.E.R.S. Framework

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