{"id":1303,"date":"2018-09-10T10:36:09","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T10:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/?p=1303"},"modified":"2018-09-10T10:37:52","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T10:37:52","slug":"when-we-seek-to-control%e2%80%8b-we-inhibit-but-when-we-empower%e2%80%8b-we-enable-people-to-flourish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/rwc-blog\/when-we-seek-to-control%e2%80%8b-we-inhibit-but-when-we-empower%e2%80%8b-we-enable-people-to-flourish\/","title":{"rendered":"When We Seek to “Control”\u200b We Inhibit…But When We “Empower”\u200b We Enable People to Flourish"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m constantly reminded of the importance of “empowering” people. This is the highest order need that each of us has – to “be the best that we’re capable of being” (i.e. self actualisation). I’m also reminded – more than I want to be – most days of the ever-present attempts of organisations to “control” my life. As you may have gathered from reading some of my earlier postings, it troubles me greatly to still see so much emphasis placed on “control” by regulatory organisations. I believe that this chosen focus is proving to be counterproductive for New Zealand; and I am presently communicating with some influential leaders on this topic to try and help bring about some much needed change in this area.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you watch a skilled teacher at work, what they do is provide just enough input into class\/ group discussions so as to still leave some thinking for students to perform. Such teachers don’t “spoon-feed” – rather, they “inspire” and guide their students to think for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

As business owners\/ managers, we need to take a page out of the book that these talented teachers use, and practice a leadership style which\u00a0avoids<\/u>\u00a0“spoon-feeding” those who report to us – a style which is essentially about “controlling”. Rather, we should be practicing a leadership style which causes those who we’re leading to feel “empowered” so that they feel confident about performing their role – and doing so as autonomously as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

The more that we can build people up around us – for them to feel “empowered” (and therefore trusted) to get on and perform their role – the greater the probability that these people will:<\/span><\/p>\n

a) Develop greater initiative.<\/span><\/p>\n

b) Start to find alternative – and possibly improved – ways of achieving desired outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

c) Drive their own continued learning – including problem solving.<\/span><\/p>\n

d) Want to increase their assigned responsibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

To this end, I really like this<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like children, adults (our colleagues) are\u00a0not<\/u>\u00a0for us – as leaders – to mold. Rather, our role is to “unfold” the layers of our people who we work alongside to help them see their own strengths, and then guide\/ help them to apply their strengths to the tasks\/ challenges in front of them. That’s where it starts and finishes. “Control” should\u00a0not<\/u>\u00a0be the pursuit of leaders. Rather, “empowerment” – in order to set-up our colleagues to be the very best that they’re capable of being – should be our primary focus where people development is concerned.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m constantly reminded of the importance of “empowering” people. This is the highest order need that each of us has – to “be the best that we’re capable of being” (i.e. self actualisation). I’m also reminded – more than I want to be – most days of the ever-present attempts of organisations to “control” my life. As you may have gathered from reading some of my earlier postings, it troubles me greatly to still see so much emphasis placed on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1304,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions\/1304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}