Leadership Practices: Enable Others to Act: Seminar

To “Enable Others to Act” a leader needs to foster collaboration and strengthen others. These actions are based on the understanding that a leader can’t do things alone. Leadership is very dependent on creating, building, and supporting a team with the concept of enabling others essential to effectiveness.

Developing trust – from every perspective – is the first aspect of fostering collaboration. A leader must first trust their team with the leader’s actions demonstrating that trust. Once the team understands that they have earned the trust of their leader, the team will be inclined to then trust the leader. Hand in hand with trust is concern and compassion. A leader needs to put the interests of the team above their own interests, sharing information and knowledge with the team. Facilitating relationships is a second important aspect of fostering collaboration. A leader needs to know their team, with the team’s view of a leader’s effectiveness directly correlated with the leader’s connection to the team. In many ways teams are a reflection of the team’s leadership so modeling the desired behavior from the team is a primary responsibility of the leader.

To strengthen others, leaders are called on to enhance team members’ self-determination and to simultaneously develop competence and confidence within the team. Self-determination is supported by allow team members to have both choice regarding work solutions and latitude in making judgement decisions. A leader who excels in these areas is likely to have a team with a large amount of pride and professional ownership in the organization. It is important for a leader to provide access to training and knowledge resources that help team members learn and grow. Such actions increase competence and lead to great levels of self-confidence. A leader who is committed to “enabling others to act” understands that they must coach their team to establish a growth mindset and to guide – and not direct – performance. As a coach, a leader helps each team member become the best person they can be.