If confidence is a key enabler of empowering employees, then what is its role for managers? Clearly many businesses at the moment have one goal – survival. Dealing with the almost daily changes and challenges that they face can at times make it hard for managers to see beyond the immediate fire-fighting. There is a tendency to seize every opportunity and for managers this can mean that they are reluctant to let go the reins for fear that something will slip.  Delegation is tough to do when business times are hard. But why managers are reluctant to let go?

The manager’s own insecurity can prevent them from letting go. Perhaps if one is new to a role, or has been given extra responsibilities there is a tendency to feel the need to demonstrate that everything is under control. This can result in micro-managing and some managers never move beyond this. Managers with a tendency to micro-manage employees can eventually perpetuate this situation because, over time, staff become conditioned to relinquish responsibility to their manager. In another blog I discussed how staff adapt to patterns of behaviour they observe in their boss.  This downward cycle of behaviour makes line reports increasing less accountable and in turn managers respond by feeling that they simply cannot then delegate with confidence.

Promoting accountability for their own performance amongst employees and encouraging achievement requires active, constant action by managers. The manager as coach is a very current concept and this style of management encourages involvement of staff in setting their own goals and objectives and so in turn increases ownership. This is especially so where employees have freedom to decide how they will achieve these – i.e. designing a strategy for accomplishing the task or project in hand.

As a coach manager therefore, the role includes sharing information on, for example, how the company is performing, what is happening in the wider operating environment, and from where opportunities and challenges arise so that employees’ awareness is raised, the boundaries are clear and the specific feedback helps them frame their plans and execution of their work. Providing such clarity and the freedom to generate new ideas and solutions helps support engagement AND ensures better alignment of effort. For managers the process of sharing and exchanging ideas also provides invaluable insight into how staff think, the information they draw upon, their values and how they relate to others and the organisation itself. By providing direction but not answers, employees’ confidence in their own knowledge, skills, experience and ability to take decisions grows.

The trade off between delegation as opposed to taking more and more on oneself is one between a perceived, if not real, increased risk of failure and this assumes a manager has greater competence, knowledge and experience.  This is not only unlikely but also undesirable.  The ability to take risks without punishment or blame is a critically important factor in engagement and in particular encouraging employees to willingly step up to the mark. It requires a culture supportive to recognise and accept that often from failure and criticism, we learn almost as much, if not more, than from our successes.

Through taking responsibility employees feel more valued and engaged with the business – they have more of a stake in it. Better engagement tends to reduce turnover and increase motivation. More ownership and focused effort on specific goals means managers are freed up to deal with the key results that they are employed to achieve. With everyone focused on the right level of activity and performance, better, more consistent business results – or in short a higher level of performance, is achieved.