The Metiss Group's Blog

Empowerment is built on trust and a healthy relationship cultivated between leaders and their direct reports.  With empowerment comes an obligation to call out troubling situations that have gone ignored.  This is most difficult for leaders who greatly care about the person, but that’s when it is most critical.  How much trust can there really be if something obvious is being avoided?

When providing feedback, these steps should help the leader:

• Take accountability for actions;
• Describe the situation and behaviors;
• Assign accountability to the direct report for identifying and implementing a solution.

For example: “I have to tell you, I feel guilty for not having brought up this issue sooner, but I have so much respect for you, I need to share with you something I should have said a long time ago.  I’m concerned you are losing credibility when you are unprepared for client sessions and not meeting deadlines. I’m confident you would never do anything to intentionally harm your credibility or ours.  What do you think you can do to turn the situation around?”

Empowered direct reports know when and how they have fallen short of expectations so they can feel the success of implementing a solution.

We all remember the quiet, shy person in high school who rarely spoke in class – the person who listened intently, took lots of notes, and worked hard at flying under the radar. When the teacher called on this introvert, we were all amazed at the insights offered and surprised the person didn’t speak up more often.

The best contributors to meetings are often the quietest. These reflective, contemplative thinkers have great ideas that are frequently lost on the team. Leaders can benefit by going out of their way to get the input of these team members. Some ideas to get their involvement:

• distribute an agenda and/or discussion topics well before the meeting, specifying what decisions need to be made (the introverts will be well prepared and more likely to contribute to the discussion);
• don’t let the domineering extroverts monopolize the conversation (the extroverts love being the focus of the meeting and the introverts are content letting them);
• do not assume the introvert’s quietness means they agree (the introvert’s head nod means they heard the point not that they concur);
• encourage the introverts to contribute by setting a rule that their silence means they disagree (this forces them to speak up);
• ask the introverts to “think out loud” and never, never criticize these thoughts (introverts prefer to speak after their thoughts are complete and are uncomfortable expressing their incomplete thoughts).

Leaders who empower the introverts on their team to contribute to team meetings have more successful organizations.

More and more organizations are getting creative with the titles they assign to their associates.  Titles like Sanitation Engineer (Janitor), Sandwich Artist (sub maker), VP of Hiring Really Great Talent (VP of HR), Corporate Magician (Administrative Assistant), Transportation Captain (Driver), and Director of First Impressions (Receptionist) are imaginative and conjure up fun images of the company and incumbents.  These untraditional titles stand out, make great conversation fodder, and communicate the company’s culture.

Some organizations choose titles that are attractive to customers and industry associates (banks are infamous for all their Vice Presidents). Sales people have the greatest variety of titles: Sales Representative, Account Executive, Business Development Executive, Customer Specialist, and Sales Ninja.

When posting for job openings, hiring managers should use titles that will resonate with the types of candidates they want to attract.  If they call their sales person VP of Sales and post the job that way, expect candidates with much sales experience, a number of direct reports, and higher salary expectations. If managers post for a Sandwich Artist, they’ll likely not get responses from someone expecting to work behind a deli counter.

The title used in the job posting doesn’t have to be the title assigned to the new hire.  Similarly, the title put on someone’s business card need not be the same title they hold within the organization.  For the same job, there can be different titles for job postings, business cards, and internal classification.

Leaders who empower their team to be creative in the titles they use will experience more success (and fun).

It is a basic marketing principle that it takes seven “touches” before someone will internalize and/or act upon a call to action.  This is why we are inundated with branding messages from billboards to websites to athletic events.

In the workplace, the average person needs to hear new information at least three times before it registers into their mind for immediate recollection.  Similarly, the average person needs to hear new information at least seven times in order to retain it.  This makes one wonder how many times below average people must hear a message before they retain it.

It is the leader’s job to communicate the message, their values, what’s right about what’s happening, and what’s wrong — over and over and over again. To be on the same page, everybody has to hear the message repeatedly.

Empowered leaders repeat their message and their teams experience more success.