Popular social media posts suggest that there are no good managers left in the world. But we know it’s not the case. Excellent managers are out there, doing their best for both their employer and the employees they are responsible for. These managers understand the value of happy, productive staff, and are always looking for ways to bring out the best in their staff. But they are challenged by a new wave of employees that do not seem to care about work, productivity, or even themselves.

One of the best ways to change this is to help employees become empowered. When an individual is empowered, they feel more confident and in control of their lives, and they take healthy steps to achieve their goals and positively impact those around them.

Thought #1: You need other people’s resources, time, and effort to empower individuals.

Thought #2: You can empower individuals by helping them identify and activate the power within them.

Take a minute to think about these different stances. What are your views? Do you think you can empower employees? Have you been waiting for someone to come and empower your employees? Here are 3 ½ methods you can use to empower employees:

Empowering Employees Method #1: Recognize the Need for Empowering Employees

Empowered employees are confident, healthy, and productive. They know what they need, and they use positive methods to meet their needs. They don’t resort to manipulation or dishonesty but instead contribute positively to their environment. Now, more than ever before, having empowered employees can be the competitive edge an organization needs to be its best.

Employees recognize managers who take an active role in helping them satisfy their empowerment needs. This action assists employees as they gain self-empowerment and creates an attitude of growth and development within the workplace. Recognizing the need for empowering employees is the first step in changing the dynamics of a workplace and supporting productive employees.

Empowering Employees Method #2: Encourage Self-Evaluation

Surveyed managers report that when employees took the time to self-reflect on their empowerment needs, they developed images and clear thoughts about their empowerment. These images helped them pursue happiness, career advancement, and positive social interactions with managers and other people needed for empowerment. Self-evaluation leads to changes in thought and attitude, and employees taking positive action towards goals.

Managers who take a key role in the self-evaluation process are more likely to lead employees to fulfill their empowerment goals. This benefits employees and managers. When managers conduct their own self-evaluation, they are better able to effectively adjust their assistance of employees in support of becoming empowered individuals. This creates a healthy attitude where managers evaluate their actions to benefit employees, and their actions to meet their own self-empowerment needs. Managers become more connected with their employees and more confident in their abilities.

This conscious effort by managers to self-evaluate their own actions creates options and opportunities for empowerment in the workplace. In contrast, managers who delegate the role of meeting empowerment needs to other people become less productive, and more out of step with their employee’s real need for empowerment.

Empowering Employees Method #3: Create a Plan

Plans developed by managers give structure and clarity to the self-empowerment process. After employees accept this plan, they start to feel and think like empowered individuals, and they are motivated to continue their journey to self-empowerment. A good plan includes encouraging these empowered individuals to pay forward what they have learned and help co-workers become empowered individuals.

Take a look back at the two thoughts about empowering employees. Where do you stand now?

You need other people’s resources, time, and efforts for empowering employees.

OR

You can empower individuals by helping them identify and activate the power within them.

If you selected “You can empower individuals by helping them identify and activate the power within them,” you’re on your way. Empowerment comes from within. It’s this internal empowerment that individuals are seeking to activate within themselves. However, it requires the external environment that occurs when a manager creates a plan to facilitate and encourage individual empowerment.

Empowering Individuals Method # ½: Use Strategies that Encourage Employees to Accept Help

As managers examine the need for empowering employees, facilitate self-evaluation for employees, and create an empowerment plan, manager-employee relations improve and individual empowerment develops.

Those employees who accept their manager’s help in empowering them experience improvements in performance and increased career and employment opportunities, while also meeting their internal need to become empowered individuals. The key is getting employees to the point where they accept the help and start taking the steps towards self-empowerment.

We have developed methods for managers to help employees accept support. These are concrete steps that managers can take to provide the environment that will lay out the opportunities for developing internal empowerment in their employees. Managers who are given this type of guidance gain confidence in their ability to empower employees.

Are you ready for specific, practical ways to adopt these empowerment methods and create real and lasting positive change in your workforce? The resources we teach are based on scientific principles that have been translated into practical actions with real results.  Enroll in the Internal Empowerment Program and experience the benefits that internal empowerment brings to your own life and the lives of your employees.