Hello!
Do you empower the people you work and live with or do you enable and control them? If you want to increase productivity, happiness and time in the day to complete your own "to-do's", you must learn to let go of your fears and start empowering people. When you empower people, you develop their skills, abilities and confidence. When you control people, you enable them to become lazy and fearful. Empowerment helps reduce frustrations and stress levels; moreover, it helps people grow, achieve more and live a great life.
Whether you are leading a team, family or yourself, letting go of control, fear, perfectionism and your ego will make you an effective leader and an emotionally healthy individual. By not trusting others to perform tasks on their own, you squelch their creative problem solving and "can-do, will-do" attitudes. People stop thinking on their own and take you for granted because they know you will complete the task at hand. In return, you feel taken advantage of, disrespected and used. It is up to you to do something different, if you want something different to happen. If you do not do anything to change your situation, you no longer have the right to complain, be critical or act miserable.
To become an effective leader of your team, family or yourself, you must acknowledge your fears about delegating and ask people to complete their share of the workload. If not, you will continue to be the only person doing all the work. You must delegate tasks and empower people into action.
How to Delegate and Empower People:
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Shift your fears about delegating into positive thoughts.
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Delegate tasks that match individual strengths.
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Define and communicate specific expectations.
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Provide necessary training and tools.
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Monitor progress and provide feedback.
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Celebrate successes!
There are many reasons why people do not delegate. For example, it is usually quicker for you to complete tasks yourself; however, in the long-run, you use up more time completing the task repeatedly. What could you do with that extra time? You must think of the many long-term rewards that delegating achieves for everyone involved. Wouldn't you prefer to have less stress and more happiness in your life?
To you feeling exceptionally empowered,
Nancy Stampahar
