Both Delegation and empowerment are different kinds of leadership tools. You may find various leaders taking up one of them to lead their teams. Leaders chose whether they want to delegate or empower, according to the business they are running.
Delegation and empowerment are compelling concepts when it comes to leading. When a leader delegates, it means that they give formal instructions to their employees and want them to act as they have been told with a bit of creativity of their own. When leaders empower, they give their employees full liberty to choose their path to do a specific job.
When it comes to Delegation and empowerment, what kind of a leader are you? Do you delegate tasks to your team, or do you motivate and empower them to do the job themselves? Is your team independent enough to be certified, or do they still need Delegation?
In a team where everyone is new, a leader can train his team members by delegating to them. This means that they can transfer the responsibilities to them according to their skills and job descriptions. At times, trusting can be a crucial task because, as a leader, you have to refrain from spoon-feeding your team, but at the same time, you want them to perform a job in a certain way.
We believe that when it comes to Delegation and empowerment, it’s better to delegate a team where you have new members, and with time, it is better to empower them.
Here are some of the advantages of Delegating work:
It gives your teams to develop their skillset and have the ability to learn
To make sure that a team is on the same page from the beginning, the leader must be the one to delegate the task. This way, they will know exactly how to respond to them in the future, even when their leader stops delegating them.
Delegation improves the relationship between the team. It helps avoid any conflict, as all the work is being delegated by someone senior to them.
A healthy one-on-one relationship is built between the leader and the team as everyone reports individually.
Delegation helps in improving time management, being more productive, and increasing overall efficiency at work.
Despite all the facts that favor delegation, we might as well look at some cons to make things a little clearer. So, here are some of the disadvantages of Delegation:
- Delegating a task does not mean that you are not accountable for it anymore. When trusting, you still have to make sure that the job is done correctly and at the right time.
- Often leaders feel that they have lost control over their work when they delegate tasks to others. This also makes them feel like they can do the job better.
- Delegating is time-consuming. It requires time to train and mentor other people.
When a leader chooses empowerment from Delegation and empowerment, it means that they are given the confidence needed to succeed by their teammates. It can be a company’s culture to empower its employees, leading to creating a more creative and efficient workforce.
It would help if you gave your teammates opportunities to grow themselves, and in this process, you will realize that they become more confident and responsible. Research has shown that employee engagement increases when they are empowered.
Here are a few advantages that will help you understand the concept of empowerment more:
- You will see that your team members become more motivated and gain more confidence in themselves and you.
- Empowering employees means that you have stopped spoon-feeding them, giving them greater authority over their work. This means that now they have to become more responsible and be their bosses.
- Employees become more creative because they do not have to follow orders.
However, empowering can always come at a cost too. Here are a few facts that you should know about before deciding to choose between Delegation and empowerment as a leadership style!
- You might come across a team member who will abuse their power when given authority. You will see that you’ll have to be extra careful with them and keep an eye out for them.
- There is a chance of an increase in interpersonal conflict. As everyone likes to work their way and wants more power, they might end up causing misunderstandings between workers.
As you want your employees to work independently, they must know how to work according to their expectations. And that calls for high training costs!
Their increase in confidence due to power can lead to them being arrogant.
The black sheep community can provide you with more information about Delegation and Empowerment. You can contact us.