Empowering Leadership
Leadership that develops others' capabilities and autonomy rather than creating dependence.
Also known as: Empowerment leadership, Enabling leadership, Autonomy-supporting leadership
Category: Concepts
Tags: leadership, empowerment, autonomy, development, delegation
Explanation
Empowering leadership focuses on developing followers' self-leadership capabilities, encouraging autonomous decision-making, and removing barriers to their success. Rather than solving problems for people, empowering leaders help people develop the skills to solve problems themselves. Key behaviors include: sharing power (giving real decision-making authority), developing competence (providing resources, training, coaching), removing obstacles (using leader position to clear blockers), and expressing confidence (communicating belief in others' capabilities). Empowering leadership works because: autonomy is intrinsically motivating, decisions made closer to information are often better, and developing others multiplies impact. The approach requires: tolerating imperfect outcomes as people learn, resisting the urge to intervene, and genuinely believing in others' potential. For knowledge workers, empowering leadership is especially effective because: creative work requires ownership, experts often know best, and micromanagement kills motivation.
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