The Power of Empowering Leadership

Juliette Plantenga, Strategic L&D Business Partner at Lepaya is co-author of this article

In a world of work that’s rapidly evolving, the ability to lead a remote and diverse team or even an entire organization asks for a strong combination of leadership skills. Leadership is not merely about overseeing tasks or giving directives; it’s about the capability to inspire, motivate, and empower others to reach their full potential. In this blog we’ll take a closer look at empowering leadership and how to empower leaders. We’ll explore what it takes to be an effective leader, and how to leverage leadership to drive your organization’s success.

1. Intro: Leadership Has Many Facets

Leadership altogether is a broad term with a multifaceted nature. It isn’t just about guiding your teams or making key decisions; it’s about leadership values, knowing how to adapt a leadership style to the needs of the organization and its people, as well as being able to coach and support employees. Ensuring you have leaders who empower your organization isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s a dynamic process that involves continuous learning, adapting, and applying various leadership styles and strategies to inspire, motivate, and drive the organization toward its goals.

2. Become the Leader People Won’t Leave

“People don’t leave companies, they leave leaders.” We’ve all heard this before, and according to market statistics, many of us resonate with this statement:

• 50% of employees leave their jobs to get away from their manager, emphasizing the importance of good management for employee retention
• According to Forbes magazine, phenomena like The Great Resignation and quiet quitting result from one thing more than anything else: a bad manager
• McKinsey’s latest research also suggests that one of the most significant reasons people are leaving their jobs is their direct manager (next to ‘unsustainable work performance expectations’ and ‘a lack of career development’)

Now it’s important to note here that people don’t just leave because they dislike their manager or don’t have a click with their team leader. It’s a bit more complex, as the below example from the Facebook Engagement Survey shows:

“At Facebook, people don’t quit a boss — they quit a job. And who’s responsible for what that job is like? Managers. Managers can play a major role in designing motivating, meaningful jobs.”

Harvard Business Review

In other words, people at Facebook left because their role did not meet their expectations. But they did (partly) hold their managers accountable for that. Thus, merely labeling managers as ‘bad’ or leadership as ‘unsatisfactory’ doesn’t paint the complete picture. There’s a wider world within these narrow labels, a world that encompasses a variety of circumstances and challenges.

3. Why is Leadership Challenging?

Managing well in a leading role is no easy feat, not even for the most seasoned managers. Research supports this: 35% of Dutch managers find their role within the organization to be the most difficult, and an additional 23% think their role will only become more difficult in the next few years.

Yes, leadership is a challenge, to say the least. But why is that? Here’s a quick rundown:

• Crafting the vision: leaders need to create a compelling vision that aligns with the organization’s mission and market dynamics. The challenge lies in effectively communicating and ensuring that everyone understands this vision
• Decision-making: leaders make decisions that have far-reaching implications. From finances to strategic choices, the gravity of these decisions can be overwhelming
• Managing diversity: organizations are filled with individuals of varied backgrounds and personalities. Balancing their needs while fostering a productive and positive work environment is a true test of leadership
• Leading change: leaders often guide their teams through transformation – a task that requires motivational skills, foresight, and resistance management
• Staying current: leaders must keep up with fast-paced market trends and technological advances, which requires continuous learning and adaptability
• Being accountable: leaders shoulder the responsibility for their team’s performance, adding to their stress levels
• Developing others: an empowering leader focuses on nurturing their team’s skills and potential, demanding significant time and effort for effective coaching and mentorship

In essence, leadership is like navigating a labyrinth of tasks, challenges, and expectations. It is crucial to any organization and touches every aspect of the business. The complexity and nuances of this role demand an eclectic mix of skills, traits, and knowledge. That’s why it’s crucial for organizations to focus on leadership empowerment – giving their leaders the tools and support they need to be successful.

4. Qualities of a Great Leader: What is Empowering Leadership?

So what are we talking about when we talk about empowerment in leadership? The empowering leadership style is all about a manager, CEO, or team leader cultivating a culture of self-confidence, autonomy, and responsibility in their teams. They achieve this by encouraging democratic decision-making, autonomous problem-solving, and the creative use of resources at all levels of their organization.

Google Case study: Leadership of the future

But what does it take to make this empowering management style work? What traits and skills does a leader need in order to take on this role? In 2008, Google started an extensive internal research project named ‘Project Oxygen’ in order to find these answers. They examined which traits and qualities make up a great leader. The outcome was a list of eight characteristics commonly exhibited by the company’s highest-performing managers, which then became integral to Google’s managerial development programs.

Over the years, as Google’s operations expanded in scale and complexity, so did the expectations and demands on its managers and leaders. Based on feedback from employee surveys, it became evident that Google employees were seeking more efficient cross-department collaboration and improved decision-making from their leaders. Managers also needed to step up their game in other areas, like leading diverse teams, avoiding bias, and performance management.

Given this feedback, Google refreshed its behavioral model and thoroughly tested the new criteria. As a result, they found that the characteristics of a proficient manager at Google had evolved alongside the company’s growth and change. Consequently, Project Oxygen’s initial list was expanded to include ten behaviors that Google’s best managers exhibit today. Some of them are updates from the original list, and others are totally new:

1. They are good coaches
2. They empower their teams and avoid micro-management
3. They are strong supporters of career development and frequently discuss the performance of their people
4. They foster an inclusive team environment, showing genuine concern for team success and individual well-being
5. They maintain productivity and have a results-driven focus
6. They demonstrate strong communication skills — both in listening and sharing information
7. They have a clear vision/strategy for the team
8. They possess vital technical skills to guide the team
9. They collaborate efficiently across the whole company
10. They exhibit strong decision-making skills

So according to the research by Google, the empowerment leadership style is defined by coaching, supporting and communicating in order to empower your teams, so that they can grow and perform well. These types of leaders share power with their employees, give them decision-making authority in their own growth and express confidence in their abilities to perform their jobs autonomously.

Simon Sinek, the famous thought leader when it comes to leadership and organizational culture, confirms this by describing this new type of leader as follows:

“A star wants to see himself rise to the top. A leader wants to see those around him rise to the top.”

Sinek seems to note that leadership of the future means not just leading your employees but empowering them in becoming the best versions of their professional selves. This perspective on leadership is one to bring to the forefront, because when your organization’s leaders of the future are people who don’t just lead their followers but empower them in becoming the best versions of their professional selves, they will be able to contribute the most to the business.

5. Why is Empowered Leadership Important, and Why Now?

One of the challenging factors that both directly and indirectly affects all types of organizations is change. Nowadays, many organizations transform into flatter organizational structures as they enable a fitter, faster, and more flexible workflow. As a result, hierarchical top-down models, once deemed effective, are no longer sustainable as they can’t keep pace with these dynamic changes. Instead, the focus has shifted towards a forward-thinking mindset, constant improvements, growth, and advancement. This shift necessitates a change in how we manage businesses, making change management a crucial aspect of leadership.

Consequently, this ongoing transformation in organizational structures needs to be mirrored by an evolution in leadership styles. Along with the organizational change, a shift in leadership is required too. Now more than ever, we need empowered leadership that can adapt, inspire, and navigate through the uncharted waters of organizational change.

Leadership shift: The new role of leadership in future-proof organisations

With the hierarchical top-down structure no longer cutting it, we are witnessing a powerful evolution in leadership, and we can see several shifts occurring.
This transformation is not just a ‘nice to have’ –  it’s necessary. The force behind it? Empowerment. Let’s break it down, using insights from the Institute for Management Development.

The IMD notes there is a:

• Identity shift: from answers to questions
  Leaders aren’t expected to know it all anymore. Instead, their role shifts into one that encourages asking the right questions
• Mindset shift: from power to empower
  Power isn’t just for the leader. Instead, leadership now means empowering others. The significance of leadership and empowerment has become paramount, with the mantle of power shifting towards enabling team members to make key decisions
• Paradigm shift: from IQ to EQ
  Emotional Intelligence is becoming the much-needed attribute of a leader, much more important than having a strong IQ

Traditionally, leaders were strategists – developing strategy and translating this into a plan – and controllers, assigning responsibilities and controlling that everyone does what they should do. Their primary goal? Maximizing value for stakeholders. But taking into account that there is a shift from answers to questions, from power to empower, and from IQ to EQ, today’s complex business environment calls for a fresh approach to leadership. An approach that must focus on teaming up to create value for all stakeholders, including customers, employees and partners.

Empowering leaders give their teams a say in decisions, and inspire them to be their best, both at work and in life. This is exactly what employees are looking for nowadays. If they can’t find at at their current employer, they’ll look for better options – it’s as simple as that.

6. Empowerment Leadership roles

McKinsey sees that this new approach to leadership leans on four new roles: visionary, architect, coach, and catalyst.

Visionary leaders

A visionary listens to and observes their people while they offer ideas and integrate different perspectives with their own. They translate their vision into measurable outcomes that empowered teams can work towards.

“As visionaries, leaders shape the emergence of a clear, compelling purpose and vision – a North Star – that resonates throughout the organization and beyond.”

McKinsey & Company

Architect leaders

Leaders are also architects that favor a deeper understanding of the system at the core of their organization, while they create space to re-image, for example, production or sales opportunities. They allow new forms of business and models to take shape.

“Leaders take on the more sophisticated role of designing the organization as an open and empowered system, able to continually plan, execute, and adjust flow of resources across shorter working cycles in pursuit of its North Star.”

McKinsey & Company

Coaching leaders

A leader who coaches encourages learning initiatives and a culture of learning throughout the organization. This way, people feel comfortable experimenting and sharing feedback. Coaching leaders ask questions, instead of straight away offering solutions, and seek different perspectives to create a more appropriate solution.

Catalyst leaders

Leaders as catalysts, make things happen. They do this in four key steps: clearing the way so teams can turn ideas into reality; helping everyone connect with each other within the organization; linking people’s work with the company’s big picture; and lastly, making the office a place where everyone can be their true selves.

These four roles are all forms of leader empowerment that represent a paradigm shift from the traditional role of the ‘leader’. They intertwine to create what we term empowering leadership. These are the type of leaders who, along with their team, focus on fostering a shared vision, structuring an efficient architecture, offering coaching and mentorship, and acting as a catalyst for positive change, impact, and value. Empowering leadership thus represents an evolved understanding of leadership where the focus shifts from control to empowerment, from instruction to inspiration, and from command to collaboration.

Find out which skills a leader can use to become an empowered leader:

Power Skill

7. The Business Impact of Empowerment in Organizations

Although the ‘Great Resignation’ might be grinding to a halt, leaders are still finding themselves at a make-or-break point for whether talent decides to stay or go. The turnover rate, already higher than desired, coupled with the ongoing scramble for skilled talent, underscores the urgent need for a shift in leadership approach.

Leadership quality has a profound impact on employee retention. Empowered employees, fostered by effective and supportive leadership, tend to deliver positive business results. Given the right tools, they engage more deeply, innovate creatively, problem-solve effectively, and articulate their ideas with lasting impact. Healthy leadership not only fuels innovation but also fosters sustainable growth.

8. The Next Step: How to Empower Leadership

So what is happening within your organization? Are your leaders up for the challenge? Check out these next steps and see what you can do to boost your leaders and give them the tools they need to empower themselves and others:

• As an L&D Manager or HR Manager, discovering your potential to inspire empowerment within your organization is critical. Communicating the importance of empowered leadership, and its proven influence on business performance, is an essential part of your role. It’s vital to motivate and inspire your CEOs, leads, and managers as they form the cornerstone of great business results. By emphasizing the transformative power of leadership empowerment, you can catalyze a culture of excellence and high performance within your organization

• After you’ve convinced your leaders to get on board, you can show the effect with data of traditional leadership against the effects of empowered leadership. Talent retention, employee happiness, and business growth: they all can and will increase

• What does your current leadership model look like? Assess your leadership model and compare it to a model that encourages empowered leadership. For example, check out this positive leadership model:

For example check out this positive leadership model:

“You can manage things, but people deserve to be guided. Too often people are over-manager and under-guided.”

1. Trust: this is built on integrity, honesty, and dependability. People must feel secure and safe around you if you are going to lead them. They need to trust you as a person and a leader
2. Relationships: without trust and connection, you will not have a healthy relationship with your teams. Healthy relationships allow for two-way communication, feedback, transparency, and support
3. Communication: this is a leader’s most important tool; it starts with good listening skills, which will make people feel heard and acknowledged. You are clear and direct without blaming or making others wrong
4. Attitude: your positive attitude and mindset support and inspires others. You keep people engaged and committed to being their best and doing their bes
5. Performance: everyone has the ability to be excellent at their jobs if they have the right skills and support of good systems and leadership. Good leadership inspires confidence, breeds competence, and creates excellence in performance
6. Culture: this is about the energy, attitude, and mindset of the people who lead and work within a business. It can create a positive, inspiring, and engaged culture that people want to be a part of
7. Last but very not least: give your leaders the tools to consciously train their leadership skills. Offer them a focus on coaching techniques, deep listening, and driving a feedback culture

Lepaya’s Power Skill Empowering Leadership supports your leaders in this journey and takes the needs of their own people into account as well. This Power Skill is therefore built around the following topics; deep listening, coaching, difficult conversations, driving a feedback culture, leadership values & ambition, and empowering your team:

• Deep listening by recognizing filters and applying empathy in their daily communication;
• Applying effective coaching techniques in their conversations to develop others;
• Effectively conveying a difficult message and handling the emotions which can arise;
• Cultivating a feedback culture that supports optimal performance;
• Discovering leadership values and put them to action;
• Building a happy and effective team by empowering their team members and promoting psychological safety.

By actively focusing on Empowering Leadership within your company, you begin by making your people feel valued, which will positively affect employee engagement, innovative behavior, productivity, and efficiency. Resulting in a business model, based around leadership, that fosters growth and strives towards high impact for your organization.