How to empower your staff

One of the most challenging skills to learn as a manager is how to empower your staff members. Some may say that it is something that comes with time and experience where others will state you have to be great with people in order to empower your team members.

All of the above are true on some level but experience does not necessarily equate to wisdom and being great with people does not necessarily mean being great at empowering people.

In order for the truth, we must dig a little deeper.

Empower your staff

What is empowerment?

Empowerment is certainly a word that is thrown around in the corporate world but when we really look at what empowerment means, it’s actually a number of things.  First of all it is knowing that your staff members are doing the work not just because they need to or have been told to, but because they want to.  Great work comes from empowered and inspired staff.  This means they have the right amount of management and freedom to feel safe but motivated in their job role.  Secondly, empowerment means the individual wants to continually improve, learn and develop.

The 80/20 philosophy

As a manager it can be a challenge to balance your time in the business, especially in today’s working world. Yet, this ‘balance’ of time is crucial if you wish to have a team who will work hard (and smart) for you day in and day out.

The 80/20 philosophy is based upon how much time you spend doing admin versus how much you are leading and motivating your workforce.

Which way round do you feel is more effective for empowering your staff?

80% leading and motivating with 20% administration or 80% administration with 20% leading and motivating.

There is no exact science behind this philosophy and it’s appreciated that many managers must spend a lot of time on the admin side of their job.  However, this can work as a simple reminder that people are inspired by people and great managers are remembered for how they lead, not how much administration work they do.

How much time are you spending hiding behind your computer?

The majority of people when interviewing for a management position state that they are great with people. Perhaps you stated it when you interviewed for your current position and it may have even been what tipped the balance for you being selected.

A simple but highly effective tip can be to put a post-it note on your computer screen that says something like the following “how many hours have you hidden behind your computer today?”  This can then act as a motivator to go and take a walk around your office to see how your team members are doing, engage in conversation or just to stretch your legs.

Important to remember, do not use this tip to micromanage your staff or be over the top with your support. Just do it because you want to do it, nothing more is required.

Train and develop

Great companies understand the importance of investing time into their most valuable resource, their people and there is no greater way of supporting your team members than continued learning and development. Bruce Lee had the perfect analogy and that was to be like water.  Water when moving stays fresh, it’s only when it stops that it becomes stale or stagnant.  The same can be said for the workplace, team members who are committed to learning and developing themselves stay fresh, however it’s down to the management to lead this process.

Learn to trust

Overall, empowering staff is a continual quest (with no finish line) of learning to trust your staff to do the best job possible because they want to do it.  Managers are always remembered for either making their staff members time at work great or tough.  Perhaps you are already that great manager but it’s always a wonderful thing to do to gently remind yourself that your success is a reflection of your team members' success and that of course takes trust, support and empowerment.

Written by Pete Scott, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

Does analysis paralysis prevent you from managing effectively?

The ability to make decisions that are timely and powerful is a critical management skill; being overly contemplative and over-analysing a situation can be damaging as Shakespeare’s Hamlet would attest to.

So how do managers know that chosen decisions are the best ones and avoid falling into the trap of just “making a decision for the sake of it, because any decision is better than none?”

To help managers produce effective decisions there are a few simple rules:

Plan, plan, plan
A common error is reactive decision making - a situation that at best ends with a serendipitous result but more often with a poor outcome.  Planning allows for decisions to be made simply, comfortably and in an effective way.

Planning provides benefits to decisions:

• opportunity to establish independent goals through a conscious and directed series of choices
• a standard of measurement of whether there is movement towards or away from a desired result 
• finite (often limited) resources can be committed in a structured and orderly way

Do your research but avoid information overload 
Information overload can be defined as "a gap between the volume of information and the tools needed to assimilate it”; the more information overload, the worse the quality of decisions made. The overload of information can be related to problems processing and tasking, which impacts decision making.

• There are a number of factors concerning information overload and consideration of these may help focus information collection and processing:
• Personal Information characteristics - qualifications, experiences and attitudes 
• Information Characteristics - information quality, quantity and frequency 
• Tasks and Process - standardised procedures or methods for gathering information and undertaking work 
• Organisational Design - organisation processing capacity and relationship - both of which affect the ability to collect, assimilate and analyse information
• Information Technology - IT management, and general technology that assist with both collection and analysis

Keep decisions rational
It is often considered that people are rational, free to make their own decisions and therefore behave according to the rational choice theory - making decisions by determining the likelihood of a potential outcome, the value of the outcome and then multiplying the two. However, in reality, there are some factors that affect decision making abilities and cause people to make irrational decisions.

Cognitive and personal biases can lead to decisions being affected and it is therefore important to be aware, to understand and to reduce (or eliminate) these.

Some common biases in decision making include:

• Selective search for evidence – the tendency to be willing to gather facts that support certain conclusions but disregard other facts that support different conclusions 
• Premature termination –  the tendency to accept the first alternative that looks like it might work 
• Cognitive inertia – the unwillingness to change existing thought patterns in the face of new circumstances 
• Selective perception – screening out information considered unimportant 
• Wishful thinking – a tendency to want to see things in a positive light 
• Recency – the tendency to place more attention on more recent information and either ignore or forget more distant information 
• Repetition bias – the willingness to believe what one has been told most often and by the greatest number of different sources 

Use a logical approach
Within decision making, managers must consider a structured approach that ensures:

• Objectives are first established 
• Objectives are then classified and prioritised by importance 
• Alternative actions are developed 
• The alternative(s) are evaluated against all the objectives 
• The alternative that is able to achieve all the objectives is the tentative decision 
• The tentative decision is evaluated for more possible consequences 
• The decisive actions are taken together with any additional actions required to prevent any adverse consequences from becoming problems and re-starting both problem analysis and decision making.

Building effective decision making steps
Managers do not work in isolation in decision making and are most effective when working with the team when implementing the logical approach above. This enables a collaborative approach to developing the following steps - increasing awareness of and overcoming any possible social, cognitive and cultural obstacles along the way.

1. Establish team ethos -  creating and nurturing the relationships, norms, and procedures that will influence how situations are understood and communicated 
2. Increase group perception -  recognising that a situation exists that needs a decision exists 
3. Interpret - identifying competing explanations for the situation and evaluating the drivers behind those interpretations 
4. Judgment - sorting various possible actions or responses and determining which is more justifiable 
5. Motivation - examining the competing commitments and then prioritising and committing to team values/needs over other personal or social values 
6. Action - following through with action that supports the more justified decision 
7. Reflect on action

So, does analysis paralysis prevent effective management? It does – but following these rules will help to overcome potential decision making obstacles and prevent this scourge of the well managed organisation.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

What challenges do Internal Communication professionals face in 2013?

Internal communication is rising high on the management agenda.  The demands being placed on internal communication professionals are also increasing. 

Effective Internal Communication

While internal communication may have been seen historically as ‘nice to have’, senior leaders are increasingly aware of its importance in maintaining a healthy and robust organisation that is fit for the future.

More and more evidence backs up these expectations.  A Towers Watson study comparing communication and financial effectiveness found that organisations that ensure effective internal communications are 1.7 times more likely to outperform their peers financially. The same study found organisations with effective communication and change management processes outperformed peers without this focus by a factor of 2.5.  The ‘Engage for Success’ movement is amassing a significant volume of evidence to show the business value of providing an engaging workplace environment.  Their work also demonstrates how communication and employee voice is a vital strand at the heart of a strategic approach to engagement.

This changing landscape provides a new set of opportunities for the communication professional – but a whole set of fresh challenges too. While developing and managing a communication infrastructure remains important, leaders are increasingly likely to demand support from senior communication professionals with real clout – who can provide guidance on how to communicate in the trickiest situations, and have earned the respect and credibility to be listened to.

So what are some of the challenges facing today’s internal communication professional?

• Developing an ability to ‘think business’:  at Executive and Board level.  Plus an understanding of how senior leaders think – and make decisions.  All important aspects of knowing how best to influence in a positive way. Understanding and navigating the political and power structure helps too
• Having the gravitas to promote communication strategies supporting business objectives – and the knowledge to explain why they make sense.  That means getting an understanding of what makes different people tick – the psychology of communication.  It also means having the listening and research skills to apply that knowledge with the various groups that make up the organisation, developing strategies that acknowledge their different world views. One approach doesn’t fit all.  
• Getting to grips with the culture (or cultures) of the organisation and identifying communication approaches that will work – and those that won’t.  As well as understanding the complexities involved in ‘changing culture’. 
• Responding to the opportunities of a more connected world.  Gone are the days where communication = telling. Digital communication can open up dialogue and sharing across – and beyond – the organisation.  It can also be the latest corporate toy to crash and burn. The internal communication professional can make all the difference here.
• Having the confidence and skill to coach leaders at all levels in their leadership communication style.  The way that leaders – from top to bottom of the organisation – promote dialogue is the foundation for an engaged and healthy organisation.
• Providing opportunities for the organisation to both communicate and to listen while avoiding communication overload.  And ensuring that measurement, evaluation, and continuous improvement  are part of ‘business as usual’.

Of course, the core craft skills of writing and creating compelling communication materials remain as important as ever. But the time is right for internal communication professionals to be raising our game.

What do you see as the core challenges facing communication professionals today?
Share your experiences below:

Liz Cochrane

Course Director, Masters in Internal Communication Management

As a manager, do you know your impact or are you relying on your intentions?

“It is not enough that your designs, nay that your actions, are intrinsically good, you must take care they shall appear so.” (Henry Fielding).

An effective manager is one of the most significant and valuable assets that the team can possess and the very things the manager does and says could increase the effectiveness of the team - the “Hawthorne Effect” (the increase in productivity and effectiveness that occurs due to the impact of the motivational effect on the team as a result of the interest being shown in them) is prevalent.

Effective Management

But there is a danger that the manager can be the single biggest thing that gets in the way of people performing. In their actions and behaviours, managers - who are human after all - may mean well but it is worth considering that it is the impact of what the manager does, not the intention behind actions and behaviours that ultimately matters.

“Impact not intention” – this must be the manager’s mantra.
Consider the manager who:

• always books things in their teams diaries “to save them the effort” 
• filters communications for the team because “they are too busy to do it themselves” 
• takes on the frequent checking of work with an individual “because it shows I am interested” 
• insists on a weekly one to one with each of their team “because it shows I care”
• pays special attention to underperforming individuals and allows the good performers to carry on without managerial input “because they don’t need me” 

Sound familiar?

“But I meant well, it’s just what they want, what they need,” is the cry that goes up. But who decided that? Are these the best thing for the individuals involved to help them perform?  What are these actions really saying to the team?

How do you know whether your actions and behaviours when managing the team are the ones that are most effective for them?
These managers may be misguided but all want the same thing – for the individual to perform. But what do individuals need from their manager in order to perform?  Why not start by asking the individual?

Whilst it is important to remember that managing people is a collaborative approach and the team cannot decide in isolation what they get, in the managerial process of seeking to ensure that people are developed, the team is built and the task is achieved it is valuable to keep in mind that we are talking about the individuals job and their performance so their voice is crucial.

“Seek first to understand. Then to be understood” wrote Steven Covey.
For a manager, getting feedback on own performance is often ignored in favour of giving feedback on others. But reflect on how valuable it would be to know those behaviours and actions that support and reinforce and those that disturb, disrupt or damage.

There are a few things worth considering:

• Developing and establishing a 360 (or 180) degree feedback system
• Building in time at the end of performance meetings to discuss what you do that supports or gets in the way of your people
• Getting other managers to observe your performance and feedback
• Having effective performance discussions with own line manager, ensuring that objectives relating to the management of people are agreed, measured and fed back on  

Samuel Johnson said "Hell is paved with good intentions."
No manager wants to live in hell so create the opportunity and take the time to check your impact matches your intentions.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

How To Successfully Lead A Team Through The Difficult Process Of Change

Managing and leading employees through any form of change in an organisation can be a challenging, difficult and even unpleasant task. What change entails might even be misunderstood, as the video clip below shows, but leading a team through the process of change can be mastered…

In our globalised and interconnected economy, organisations deal with continually shifting market conditions, customer demands, technologies, input costs and competition. Organisations must continually adapt and ask questions such as: ‘How can we improve our strategy, tactics and business plan? And what can be improved upon in order to reach our long terms business goals?’ 

The biggest problem relating to initiating change in organisations, whether it be changes to the organisation, employees moving to different departments or taking on different roles, new systems being introduced or just a different way of doing things, is people don’t like change. People have been used to doing things in a specific way for a certain period of time. People are in general adverse to change and don’t like being told you now have to do things differently to what you have been doing up until now.

But surely change can be managed successfully? As the leader who has to manage the change, you have a difficult task ahead, but ensure the following and it will ease the process and lead to the change being implemented successfully faster:

1. Communicate why the change is necessary. Talk to your team and make sure they have a very clear understanding of why things need to change, how they need to change and how the change will be implemented and followed through. 
2. Give your team the opportunity to contribute, make suggestions and allow them to get involved in the decision making process. 
3. Facilitate and encourage questions to eliminate any uncertainty which will in turn reinstate confidence in their work and in themselves. 
4. Celebrate any successes and goals accomplished during the change process. Employees need to feel valued and should be thanked for the work they’ve done and their willingness to adapt to the change. 
5. Reiterate why the change is necessary and how it will benefit the company. Always have an open and clear communication channel, when there is a communication vacuum employees wonder what is going on and will feel left out. They might even think their manager is plotting something. 
6. Be as transparent as possible. 

Remember: Change is less scary when you are leading the change, making the decisions and monitoring the progress. When you are in the driver’s seat you are in control. But always consider your passengers and try and make their journey as pleasant as possible.

What Makes An Effective Team Leader Or Manager?

Some managers inspire and motivate, but many fall short in their attempts to engage their employees. An "effective" manager takes responsibility for ensuring that each individual within his/her department succeeds and that the team or business unit achieves results. The good news is managerial skills can be developed through training, mentoring, and experience - it doesn't have to revolve around natural talent.

The top 5 most common traits in successful managers include communication, leadership, adaptability, relationships, development of others, and personal development.

As a new or established manager, what skills and behaviours should you be demonstrating in order to lead and manage successfully.

1. Communication - effective managers develop their ability to understand others' communication styles, as well as their own, and how they can be harnessed to create a positive impact on working relationships within a team and the wider organisation.

2. Leadership - Leadership is an essential quality for any manager but one that is sometimes overlooked during the process of promoting a new manager. As a new or established manager are you instilling trust, providing direction and delegating responsibilities effectively within your team? These are all characteristics, which can be developed.

3. Adaptability - The ability to adapt also contributes to a manager's effectiveness. When a manager is able to adjust quickly to unexpected circumstances, he is able to lead his team to adapt as well. Adaptability also means that a manager can think creatively and find new solutions to old problems.

4. Relationship building - Effective managers should strive to build personal relationships with individual team members, which helps build trust. When managers establish relationships with employees it builds trust and employees feel valued, which in turn leads to increased efficiency within the team.

5. Coaching others - Effective managers know when their employees need more development. Coaching skills drive performance within a team and help others achieve more of what they are striving for. Training is the first step to learning, coaching then accelerates that learning process to build skills and deliver real ROI.

If you are reading this blog post and you have experience of the positive effects of other qualities demonstrated by a successful leader or manager then please post your comments below.


In this training update from CAPITA Learning & Development we will look at these top areas that you, as a new or established manager, should be demonstrating in order to lead and manage successfully.

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Each year CAPITA Learning & Development develops hundreds of top leaders and managers through our Leadership and Management faculty. For more details please contact us on 0800 022 3410 or email us with your query: enquiries@capita-ld.co.uk