Power from empowerment

A knight and his men return to their castle after a long hard day of fighting.

“How are we faring?” asks the king.

“Sire,” replies the knight, “I have been robbing and pillaging on your behalf all day, burning the towns of your enemies in the west.”

“What?!” shrieks the king. “I don’t have any enemies to the west!”

“Oh,” says the knight. “Well, you do now.”

This is empowerment gone wrong.

Let’s talk empowerment today.

When you mention the name Dr. John Maxwell you will find that the name is synonymous to leadership. And when you mention the name Dr. Denis Waitley what comes into mind is the word Winning.

One of the books that made Dr. John Maxwell famous is the book entitled: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. And one of the books that made Dr. Denis Waitley famous is the book entitled: The Psychology of Winning.

Not only do I enjoy the pleasure of meeting both of these legendary figures in person, I have actually been given the opportunity of sharing the same speaker’s platform with them. These two gentlemen are not only encouraging but they do personify the very things they teach.

While Dr. Maxwell is better known to be the authority on the subject matter of leadership, today I want to share with you an article on the same subject matter but this time authored by Dr. Dennis Waitley.

Dr. Waitley says: “A good way to think of leadership is the process of freeing your team members to do the best work they possibly can. I have followed NBA basketball coach Phil Jackson’s career.

Like Phil Jackson who moved from the record setting Chicago Bulls to the Los Angeles Lakers. Jackson says his principal task is creating an environment in which his players can flourish. In communicating with his championship teams, Jackson convinced them that they had the talent to win championships, and that the main goal of the coach was going to be freeing them to use that talent.

Did you get that? You have to free your people to use their talents…

Today’s business team members, say they want, more than anything else, the autonomy to do their jobs without the boss’s interference. In the new economy, it’s already clear that the CEOs of our best-run companies believe that the more power leaders have, the less they should use.

The job of the team leader is to set a mission, decide upon a strategic direction, achieve the necessary cooperation, delegate authority — and then let people innovate. To do that we all could take a hint from the late football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant. Before his retirement as one of the leading coaches in college football history at Alabama, Bryant observed:

“I’m just a plowhand from Arkansas, but I’ve learned how to put and hold a team together. I’ve learned how to lift some individuals up and how to calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat together, as a team. To do that, there’s just three things I’d ever have to say:

Zeroth. If anything went wrong, I did it.

• If it went semi-good, then we did it.

• If anything went real good, then you did it! 

That’s really all it takes to get other people to win for you.”

The key to authentic leadership is to listen to your people, and then open the door for them to lead themselves. The secret is empowerment. The main incentive is genuine caring and recognition.

The five most important words a leader can speak are:  “I am proud of you.”

The four most important are: “What is your opinion?”

The three most important are: “If you please.”

The two most important are:  “Thank You.”

And the most important single word of all is: “You!”

There are many companies today that do not have a succession plan in place.

With many of their senior executives retiring soon, their mid-level executives are still ill-equipped to step on the plate and resume responsibilities. This will cost the companies.

The situation is very typical. When things are going well, all they care about is “Bring in the Numbers!” “Sell more…more and more…” “Hit the target. Reach the goals and reach for the stretch goals.” There’s just no time to think succession.

And when the business is not doing well, then the need is survival not succession and so in both cases, succession is ignored.

Another reason is because senior executives do not mentor people because they do not want to be succeeded. They want to hold on to their current jobs and positions for as long as possible. Many senior executives are floating in their happy and contented state of plateau. I heard one senior executive saying, “There’s no need for me to go through the training since I will be retiring soon anyway…”

Based from what Dr. Waitley says, are you a good leader? Do you empower your people and are you secure enough to allow your people to outshine you from time to time?

Now do not be surprised if I tell you that both gentlemen, Dr. John Maxwell and Dr. Denis Waitley agree that the best model for authentic leadership is Jesus Christ who displayed servant hood as the best way to empower His people. This is why Scriptures say that this handful of men were able to turn the whole world upside down.

(Send me your feedback to: [email protected]. You can also listen to my radio program “Business Matters” aired 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)