Do you aspire to unleash your giant within and become a great leader? In our 167th Chapter Meeting, we have the privilege to invite Thomas Chen, EC3, an Entrepreneur and International Business Strategy Coach from Pasirisian Toastmasters Club back to Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club to conduct a workshop on how to empower to accelerate to a greater leader.
The bubbly Thomas set the audience members’ mind on fire by asking us “What is definition of Leader and Great Leader”. He highlighted that everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone somehow in our social and corporate world. Everyone uses different leadership type and multiple leadership style in different context but he/she has distinctive primary leadership style which one should capitalize on.
Thomas highlighted that great leader like our late Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, Martin Luther King (an American Christian minister and activist) and Bill Gate (Microsoft founder) differ from other leader in, these great leaders know how to empower effectively. He reiterated John C Maxwell’s quote that “Leaders become great not because of their power but because of their ability to empower others”.
Empowerment is about giving autonomy or authority to someone to do something, In workplace, it is a philosophy that encourages workers to make their own independent decisions and managers giving workers the proper support for them to feel confident in their roles. Thomas shared the 6 benefit of Empowerment-
Build trust in team.
Empower is best way to gain trust, to show your staff that they have your trust. This is the strongest emotion for the team.
Team feels more confident of their ability when they are empowered.
When the team is confident, they will take ownership of their work and are more motivated and engaged.
Empowerment encourage participation.
Thomas quoted the success of Google and Facebook who tap into individual expertise to drive innovation and inspire creativity through empowerment.
Empowerment enhances team competency. It is teaching a man to fish than to give him the fish.
Empowerment facilitate Continuity of the organization. It empower new member and fresh talent to leadership development. Hence enhances Succession planning.
Effective Expansion allows the system to leadership expansion. Thomas cited McDonald as one of the successful model for expansion in empowerment.
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| Active participants of the workshop in Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club's 167th Chapter Meeting |
You want to set your team to success? Thomas provided the 6 steps to an effective empowerment
Step 1: Identify and specify Organization objectives.
For everyone to move toward same direction, they need to see the ultimate goal. To avoid employee having a free rein, it is imperative to clearly define the project boundaries and expectations. This reinforce the standard of quality. Thomas quoted Salesforce.com, inc. an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Salesforce.com is one of Fortune 100 best companies to work for. Salesforce exponential growth is inspired by the Ohana culture based on family values which employees use it to gauge their KPI.
Step 2: Leader needs to have clear communication of expectation
As a leader, it's your job to get everyone on the same page. Precise clear communication is the key for people to know what they're supposed to accomplish.
Step 3:- Assess and amplify the level of readiness of the team.
One of the key takeaways is focusing on strengths, especially when you are looking at yourself and your team. By understanding each employee's strengths and weaknesses you as a leader can empower them in the ways that work best for them and your company.
Step 4: - Gradual & Incremental responsibility allocation.
Thomas cautioned that learning to lead is a process of learning by doing. Learning occurs incrementally and gradually so best leader knows the difference the type of decisions and have the discipline to empower as much as appropriate.
Step 5:- Praise the process and encourage the empowered.
Thomas emphasize the importance of praising the process of getting the effort, the way the employee get the result. This is to encourage improvement and progression.
Step 6:- Review reflect and readjust.
Finally it is imperative to always check whether you had empowered correctly. It is worth to take time to review your plan against activities. Access how far you had accomplished and readjust on whether empowerment is done correctly.
Thomas concluded that Empowerment begin with the end at mind and in every organization great leader can be made.
In conclusion, empowerment build trust, motivate and facilitate growth. To empower, we need to identify the objective and communicate the expectation and have vivid objective. Assess the strength and weaknesses of the team and teach the employee to fish. Finally it is imperious to review, reflect and readjust the activities.
The Saturday afternoon was another day well spent in a Toastmasters Club meeting, I had a lot of takeaway from the interactive workshop to morph into an effective leader.
Thank you Thomas for sharing these valuable tips.
Written by Helena Lim, CC
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