The Big 6 – Christina’s story
Empowering Behaviour – What does it look like?
Empowering Behaviour is a number one Leadership skill that needs to be learned and practised and applied. Every leader wants to work with people who are engaged, excited and striving to meet your goals – and Empowering Behaviour will get you there.
What happens when you Ask Questions?
We get people to think! No one wants a workforce full of drones or yes-men. We want people to come up with ideas, to innovate, to find novel solutions to old problems!
Asking questions sounds easy, but your team must have confidence that they’ll be listened to. It’s all about building trust. They’ve got to believe that they won’t be mocked or belittled for ideas that might not work first time. They need them the freedom to experiment and keep perfecting their ideas.
Innovation is what makes your business fly when others stagnate!
When we ask questions of people, they hear that they are valued. When we value people’s contribution, they have pride in their work. They stay loyal, they want to work hard for us and give us their best. A study by Zenger Folkman found that when they feel disempowered, only 4% of employees will give ‘extra effort’, but when the feel empowered, that rises to 67%!
By simply asking questions we say: I value you, I value your opinion, I value your ability, I value your contribution, I value you in every way.
What happens when you set Firm Boundaries?
We create a structure to operate that has sensible parameters that protect you from the harm that going over the boundaries might create.
I imagine there is no employer in the world that doesn’t want their employees to work hard and achieve as much as they can. Some leaders or bosses might not care that that individual is working too hard, with negative consequences to their own personal life and their health. Bad leaders might even encourage that lack of boundary.
Your boundaries protect you from other people, but they can also protect you from yourself.
As someone who has suffered from burnout, my boundary is that I finish work at 5:30. My boundary is that I always have a lunch hour. My boundary is that I don’t work weekends. These boundaries and rules represent what is acceptable and good for you and enables you to be at your best. If we have these boundaries and rules around ourselves, we protect ourselves from behaviour that is damaging to ourselves – overworking, overwhelmed, unbalanced work/life.
At the end of the day, we can create an environment of Empowering Behaviours; but we can’t empower other people, we can only empower ourselves.
Find out more about The Leadership Burst
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