Easing up.
Handing over the reigns.
Letting other people take control.
Encouraging them to call the shots.
Easier said than done, right? Especially when the stakes have gotten so high, the margins so slim, and the competition so fierce.
Trust me. I get it. I’ve run my own business for 25 years. I know firsthand how hard it can be to let other people ‘in’ and let them run with my vision.
Yet, I also know firsthand the benefits of empowerment. Not just in my own company, but in the companies I serve.
Take the billion-dollar services firm, for example. It was this behavior – supporting people to take ownership and make decisions about issues impacting their work – that helped this company rescue a $30 million initiative from the brink of collapse.
If you struggle to not have the final say, you’re not alone. It’s the behavior people who’ve taken my Trust Quiz are struggling with the most right now, too.
But – if you’re willing to consider a different way of showing up, if you’re willing to try this behavior on for size – I promise you’ll experience three significant benefits.
You’ll find that people:
Stop waiting on you to tell them what to do.
People who hold on to every detail bottleneck progress. Issues accumulate on their desks.
Big issues.
Small issues.
Issues that could be handled by other people.
Issues that shouldn’t be handled by other people.
They all pile up, blurring the line between what’s urgent and what’s not.
Meanwhile, people wait. Not just on the issues they put on the desk, but on the other decisions they can’t make until those issues are resolved.
Liberate workflow. Release people from their holding patterns. Extend trust that they’re able to do the jobs they’ve been handpicked to do.
Start taking appropriate risks.
No team, in any industry, in any part of the world, can survive in this economy through a cookie cutter approach to anything. Everything – every idea, process, and product – must continuously evolve as a customized solution to a current, nuanced need.
Customization can’t happen without innovation.
Innovation can’t happen without appropriate risk taking.
Risk taking can’t happen if people don’t feel trusted to direct their own work.
Help people feel safe to stick out their necks. Let them known they’re trusted to take the ball and run with it.
Take greater responsibility for addressing the impacts of their mistakes.
When people feel trusted to move their own work forward, a beautiful thing happens.
They also feel responsible for cleaning up their own mistakes.
Think about it.
Which would kick you in to crisis management mode faster: A messy situation someone else created, or a messy situation you created?
Most people feel more driven to address and remedy mistakes that are 100% theirs.
So, what’s it really take to let other people make decisions? Below I’ve given you a trust tip to support you practice this behavior and build your Trust of Capability®.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll give you one of these downloadable tip sheets for every behavior in my models we unpack together.
Please save them.
Print them.
Leave a copy in the break room.
Whether you’re aware of it or not, someone in your team needs this tip right now.
Yours in trust,
Dennis Reina, PhD
Click here to download your Trust Tip.
