To empower your team is a critical skill for any leader and it is more than just delegating or assigning tasks to people. The background for empowerment is that you can't do all the tasks in your organization or project by yourself. You need help! It also assumes that you are not afraid to empower people who are stronger than you are. Now this assumes obviously that you are self-confident and that you are not afraid to make the team stronger by giving up some control. Are you this type of Leader?
If you are, you will have to hand off some responsiblities to others in your team. Before you do that you have to check who is ready for which responsibilities. Do the people you have in mind have the knowledge, skills and desire to accept the responsiblities? Once you found the right people you have to show them what you expect. Take enough time to communicate the objectives well to prevent any unpleasant surprises later. At that point they should understand that you genuinely want them to succeed. To make sure that everyone in your organization or project team understands that you are empowering someone to take on certain responsiblitlies you should publicly transfer these responsibilites to them. This way the whole team including the person that gets empowered understand that you are confident in the empowered person and that they have the authority to make decisions and initiate actions.
I consider empowerment the hallmark of a true leader. You, as the leader, get more time for other important things in your organization/life. In addition to knowing that you help others and your organization or project to succeed it will also help you to increase your influence.
