Author: Priyasha Purkayastha, Sr. Content Writer, TJC Group | Co-author: Renuka Sharma, HR Manager, TJC Group
In a working environment where most of the companies worldwide have implemented either remote or hybrid working, empowering leadership styles are what we need to adapt quickly. The trend to favour remote working continues to increase and in 2024, we saw another leap in adoption levels compared with previous years. Read our blog to learn more about this leadership style.
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Today, most employers operate on a fully remote basis, with no physical office space. But what’s the key to being successful with this working model? As a matter of fact, the secret ingredient to being able to transition successfully to remote or virtual working is effective leadership, with the empowering leadership model having been proven the most effective.
What is the empowering leadership model?
Empowering leadership is a collaborative management style, focusing on developing employee autonomy and shared power. At the core, it operates with an emphasis on supporting personal development and self-reliance within the employees. Moreover, this type of leadership involves developing high levels of trust among team members, granting them decision-making authority, and encouraging them to take ownership of their work. By doing so, empowering leadership aims to increase employee confidence, job satisfaction, and productivity, while also enhancing the overall workplace culture. Because of its nature, it is easy to see why this model of leadership is so desirable and highly prized among workplaces. Without this type of leadership in place, running a company where employees are happy and satisfied becomes difficult.
How does empowering leadership support excellence?
To understand these features in more detail, let’s explore the key characteristics of empowering leadership:
Trust and autonomy
Greater trust and autonomy because leaders place high levels of trust in their employees, allowing them to make decisions and manage their work tasks independently. This autonomy is crucial for fostering a sense of responsibility and ownership among team members who are based remotely and will not have the chance to interact in an office.
Support and development
Better support and development because leaders who strive to empower people support the effectiveness of their employees by providing easy access to the necessary tools and resources. Coaching and mentoring also play an important part in helping employees to grow both personally and professionally. In fact, here in TJC Group, we are dedicated to making sure that our employees are provided with the best possible training for their development. We are mindful that each employee may have a different requirement. So, we put our best foot forward to cater to them.
Clear communication
In a workplace, effective and clear communication is a must; especially, when team members are geographically dispersed. Empowering leaders are adept communicators, that helps ensure that each team member understands the organisational vision and how they can contribute individually towards achieving it. Having this level of vision clarity means employees are always well motivated and will strive to align their own efforts with the organisation’s wider goals. From senior management to team leads, at TJC Group, clear communication is a way to go. Everyone works with transparency, ensuring that the mission and vision of the organisation is met without any discrepancies.
Recognition and appreciation
Recognition and appreciation of your team members are perhaps the most critical elements. The key to empowering leadership is to recognise and acknowledge the contributions of team members, which boosts morale and encourages continued high performance.
TJC Group strongly believes in this philosophy, leading to frequent appreciations and recognitions of team members. As a matter of fact, during our half-yearly conference TJC Days, we recognise our best performers with awards and gifts; recognise those who have contributed immensely from years, celebrate work anniversaries, and more. These small efforts from the management make our team members feel valued and appreciated.
Research to support the empowering leadership model
The empowering leadership model has been proven highly effective in multiple businesses across many different market sectors but has been particularly valuable in the technology industry. This leadership style supports a complex and dynamic working environment by encouraging innovation and embracing change. Multiple research studies have highlighted the benefits of empowering leadership as follows:
Increased levels of employee work engagement
Empowering leadership fosters a work environment where employees feel more engaged, which is crucial for retaining top talent and boosting performance. Many industries today are experiencing a chronic skills shortage and high levels of competition for the best workers; therefore, by reducing churn through effective leadership brings a very important competitive advantage.
Enhanced rates of innovation
Empowering leadership promotes innovation by encouraging employees to share information and participate in independent decision-making. By enhancing intrinsic motivation, this leadership style stimulates innovative behaviour, as employees feel more committed and have a greater sense of belonging to their organisations. In fast-paced industries like technology, where innovation is a key to staying competitive, empowering leadership can lead to significant advancements and improvements in products and services.
Benefitting from the art of empowering leadership
Several companies have successfully implemented empowering leadership styles, demonstrating its benefits across various industries.
A top CRM company embraced empowering leadership by addressing pay disparities, creating spaces for ethical discussions, and fostering innovation through several initiatives for collaborative skill-building. These encourage the employees to volunteer, further nurturing opportunities for their growth and new endeavours. Their success to this serves as a testament to the value of the chosen model of empowering leadership.
But that’s not it. There are several others that have adapted this technique. In the US, a well-known retail e-commerce brand is highly regarded for its strong commitment to employee empowerment. In fact, they are renowned for fostering high levels of ‘work ownership’ and for giving staff all the resources and support they need to flourish. In return, the company has benefited from very high levels of employee engagement and motivation, with a strong company culture.
Furthermore, there are several big corporations that are known for having an innovative and dynamic culture, courtesy, empowering leadership approach. Such companies are remarkably known for encouraging employees to take the initiative and contribute their ideas, further fostering the positive environment of creativity and innovation.
Final word
All in all, it is imperative to review your leadership style, if you, as an organisation, are looking for such nurturing and empowering environment. Empowering leadership has been proven highly effective in boosting engagement and performance and will provide the right foundation for long term business success.
As we have mentioned before, TJC Group thrives on empowering its workforces to let their innovation flow. We believe in moving forward with strong and purposeful leadership that creates a positive environment for everyone.
For more such interesting reads on leadership and other corporate topics, keep a keen eye on our blog page!
