Are you creating the right environment for teams to be empowered?

Developing teams to operate in an empowered way depends on the leader to create the environment for it to happen. Here's what's needed.

Many leaders want teams to face diffi

cult problems and figure out a way to solve them. But teams struggle with the problems and spin out because they don't have the right conditions needed to solve them. Those teams are trying to work in an environment where it's impossible to be empowered.

Here are 3 conditions a team must have to be empowered to solve difficult problems.

1. A team must have the skills needed to solve a problem.

Imagine having to build a tree house. To build it with reasonable quality and speed, you'd need a collection of tools. Now suppose you had to build a tree house using just a saw. How frustrated and disempowering would you feel? Same with teams. When a team is given a problem to solve, does the team possess all the skills and people needed to solve the problem? It's your responsibility as a leader to ensure that the team has what they need to effectively and efficiently solve the problem.

2. A team must be allowed to focus on a problem.

I've worked with teams where they were trying to juggle multiple different projects of importance. The team feels defeated under the weight of all the problems on their plate and are unable to focus on a problem to completion. As the leader, it's your job to be clear about the priority of work and allow the teams to have focus to solve a problem. You get to this kind of clarity when leaders have a strategy: knowing what problems they want solved and the order they want them solved.

3. A team must have manageable dependencies.

Once an organization has multiple teams, it's typical for there to be dependencies between them. The goal isn't to remove dependencies as that would result in siloed and disconnected work. The goal is to create an environment where the dependencies are manageable by the teams. This means that leaders need to get out of the way in between teams. The leader's job is to provide the context needed for teams to make the right call. Let teams figure out their dependencies. They'll often find better ways to work together.

Most would agree that a weak leader just tells people what to do. Then why would you tell teams what to build? Too many leaders think their job is to tell teams what to build. Your job is to tell teams what problems to solve and give them what they need to solve them.

As the leader, give teams what they need, give them direction, and get out of the way.

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