Empowering Others

In my leadership and management experience, I've run across two major types of leaders: those who believe in empowering others who work with you, for you and around you, and those who are less empowering and collaborative and often think that he/she must lead alone.

It does take a confident leader to bring out the best in others, to leverage the strength of those around them, and to keep a razor-like focus on the goal at hand while remaining fluid on how objectives are achieved, and rallying key stakeholders and other advocates around the common cause.

There is little doubt that in today's increasingly interconnected and global economy, the collaborative and empowering leader is better positioned for success. Factors such as the increased pace of the business world, the diversification of the workforce, and the intricacies and complexities of today's business and technology challenges will continue to favor the collaborative and empowering leader.

But if you agree that becoming more collaborative and empowering as a leader is the right thing to do, ask yourself some questions:

1. How good are you at empowering those around you?
2. Who has empowered you to reach your current level of achievement and how did he/she do so?
3. When you lead, how will you strike a balance between empowering, guiding and supporting those you work with in order: to give others confidence and respect, to collaboratively leverage the team's influence and strengths and to challenge the whole team to reach for the next level of excellence?
4. What specific steps can you take to improve?

I invite you to share your stories about empowering others in the business context through this blog or through e-mail to info@FountainBlue.biz.

I also invite you to attend FountainBlue's next "When She Speaks" Women in Leadership Series which is on the topic of Empowering Others and features Sally Pera of PeraConnect as the facilitator, and Ysabel Duron of KRON and Cindy Padnos of Outlook Ventures as panelists. Sally, Ysabel and Cindy will share their perspectives and insights on Empowering Others as well as their words of advice.

The event is scheduled for Friday, July 14 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. at UCSC Extension in Cupertino on Bubb Road. To register, visit http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=110444.