Why you need to stop trying to empower your team and help them evolve instead

I used to like the word empowered, it suggested something positive, giving people power. Then I read Patty Mccord’s book Powerful about her time in HR at Netflix. She said “People have power, don’t take it away”. We take it away from them with a command and control, top-down decision-making system. This happens through cumbersome policy, processes, and systems and then we try to look like we are giving it back through employee empowerment and engagement.

“A company’s job isn’t to empower people; it’s to remind people that they walk in the door with power and to create the conditions for them to exercise it. Do that, and you will be astonished by the great work they will do for you.” Henry Stewart.

This made me sit up and listen. The reframe was so useful. My mantra is “treat people like adults”. When I was designing my development interventions for people managers I realised that empowerment was not what I wanted to offer. I searched for a long time, explaining to many other people what I was trying to achieve whilst still waiting for the right word to reveal myself. I was booked on a design day with an amazing freelancer to get the branding right for the unnamed ‘stuff.’ Speaking to them was a breath of fresh air. I couldn’t use HR jargon. I needed to boil down what I was trying to achieve into an outcome and there it was. Evolved.

Why do we need to evolve our managers?

The idea that the work place is constantly changing. That the people in the workplace are constantly changing. Whether it be through recruitment, technology or through generational changes. From employing baby boomers, millennials or Generation X etc and what each group may or may not want from their workplace and therefore their managers. And then I saw a quote from Charles Darwin and it all started to hang together.

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change” Charles Darwin

And so the Evolved Manager became the name of the programme. The Evolved Manager isn’t another course that teaches managers how to control their teams or tell them off using company procedures. This is a course about giving a manager the tools to be able to flex as their environment changes, so that they can see what works depending on the people around them.

It all starts with self awareness

The Evolved Manager journey starts with some self-awareness. It starts with learners asking themselves what they have and what’s missing in terms of their behaviour and resources. We get them to answer reflective questions like “What is helpful and what is unhelpful to myself and to others” so that we can start to explore the value of adapting their behaviours.

In the same way that an adult might scoot down to the floor and change their tone of voice to engage a young child, a manager needs to understand their own behaviour and the needs of their team. Understanding how and why they can make the necessary adaptations means that they are able to create an environment that feels safe and supportive. Doing this creates an environment in which people can thrive and in which you get the best out of them.

Accommodating for differences

It’s important to raise at this point that when we talk about adaptations we are not talking about making concessions. Letting undesirable behaviours go unchecked or “making allowances”. This about increasing your self awareness and understanding the impact that the way you speak and behave affects people both negatively and positively. Ma,ing adaptations is about understanding how to be an effective leader and being able to spot where your method of leadership is not getting the required results. People have very individual learning styles and communication preferences. An evolved leader is able to flex their own communication and leadership style in order to accommodate the needs of their team.

Next stages in the evolution

The next step in the Evolved Manager journey is to explore our management style. Looking at what works and for whom. We consider the art of delegation, setting direction and purpose so that both the manager and the team start to learn their own adaptations.

We also consider the environment so that again we can get the best from it and adapt and evolve accordingly. This is a topic that has been experienced by many who have transitioned from office to home working or a hybrid model as a reaction to covid.

The beauty of evolution is that it is never finished for the manager. We are not one of those species that failed to adapt and became extinct. As managers we don’t learn one new thing, brush our hands together and declare it done. We have to continue the journey of evolution as each change to our environment arrives. So we keep learning and continue to evolve. The Evolved Manager gives you the tools and the long term skills to be able to cope and thrive as each new challenge arrives.