When is it time to let your team do their jobs on their own? How can you empower your employees from afar?
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones advise that leaders should give teams ownership of their duties, promote a culture of collaboration, and understand that mistakes are essential to success. Giving your team authority is positive reinforcement that empowers them to succeed on their own.
Learn how to empower your team by letting them take control of projects and reassuring them that failure is okay.
Encouraging Authority Among Employees
To promote a sense of ownership in your team, say Cagan and Jones, product leaders should set clear, meaningful objectives rather than giving teams lists of jobs to do. By defining “what” needs to be achieved without dictating “how,” you make team members responsible for the results of their work, not just for following a specified method. Granting teams this type of ownership over their objectives is an effective method of learning how to empower employees while not hovering because it encourages workers to feel responsible for achieving the company’s wider mission. This increases team members’ engagement, which then opens doors to innovation. After all, when workers start thinking like owners, they turn their focus to the outcome of their work instead of just making sure all their tasks are done.
(Shortform note: The idea of giving teams objectives to accomplish rather than instructions to follow didn’t originate with Cagan and Jones, and perhaps not even in the business world at all. In the late 1800s, a German general named Helmuth von Moltke implemented the military strategy called Auftragstaktik to deal with uncertainty on the battlefield. Instead of laying out steps that each soldier had to follow, Moltke set overall objectives and trusted soldiers to meet them in the most appropriate way. This allowed soldiers to adapt quickly to constantly shifting combat situations. This strategy continues to serve as a model for maximizing individual decision-making power and adapting to dynamic situations.)
Next, Cagan and Jones recommend that you encourage interactions between team members so individuals can collaborate and learn from each other. Collaboration in this case doesn’t imply that your team should make decisions based on consensus or compromise—instead, team members should work together toward solutions that derive from each person’s unique knowledge and skills. This constructive sharing of ideas boosts growth and confidence within your team while working toward your company’s larger business goals.
Lastly, to truly empower a team, say Cagan and Jones, product leaders must understand that failures are often stepping stones toward success. Rather than punishing mistakes, leaders should nurture a work environment where exploration is encouraged. Experimentation often leads to new breakthroughs faster than conventional methods might allow. Keep in mind that innovative exploration only thrives when team members feel psychologically safe. As a leader, it’s your task to ensure your team feels respected and that their contributions are valued as crucial to the business’s innovative growth and progress, even when their contributions and ideas don’t work out as intended.
(Shortform note: Cagan and Jones’s words on reframing failure also imply that you should change your attitude toward success. Though it may seem counterintuitive, management expert Peter F. Drucker explains in Innovation and Entrepreneurship that success pulls resources away from innovation. A business’s focus on its successful activities can make it overlook new ideas or risky side projects as being less significant than the company’s established initiatives. It requires a conscious decision to redirect resources away from successful endeavors, and because of the risks involved with new ideas, Drucker writes that companies should pursue three times as many innovative projects as they think they’ll need for the future.)
| Collaboration and Psychological Safety Though Cagan and Jones only touch on it briefly, one prerequisite for the degree of collaboration they espouse is psychological safety. Research by Google underscores the value of creating a space where team members feel safe to take interpersonal risks. This kind of safety requires the acceptance of diversity, transparency in discussing problems, and an assurance that mistakes don’t lead to repercussions. Once these conditions are in place, team members feel safe to seek help from others and still feel that their contributions are valued, which in turn means they’re likely to be more innovative and productive. Showing interest in your team members’ development, as Cagan and Jones previously advised, can also contribute to an atmosphere of psychological safety at work. In The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier writes that directly asking people what they want—as in, how they would like to grow their skills or progress in their careers—creates a sense of safety because many people aren’t used to expressing their needs directly out of fear of being rejected. Asking team members what they want for themselves sends the message that you’re on their side, you value their input, and it’s safe for them to relax and lower their defenses while at work, freeing their minds to be more productive. |
