We’ve been talking a lot the language of Empowering at our church lately. We know we cannot continue the way we have been but we are struggling with what #empowering leadership will look like in our setting. Though we might not be willing to admit it I suspect that many around us are skeptical as to whether anything will get done in an environment of empowering leadership when what we are used to may look more akin to hierarchical or control based leadership. Ron Edmondson has been writing on this lately so i wanted to share with you his list, not on how to define Empowering leadership, but on how not to define empowering leadership. Read his whole post here Here are 10 reasons you may want to reconsider calling yourself an empowering leader: Your number one answer is “NO”. You have to personally approve every decision and control every outcome. Everyone on your team works “for you” and not “with you”. You use the word “I” more than the word “we”. Your idea of delegation is telling people what to do, when and how to do it. You say “Do this” far more than you ask “What should we do?”. Nothing happens in your organization without your knowledge. You consistently reverse the decisions of the team. You control information because information is power. You crush people when they make a mistake. I’m going to be spending time over the next few weeks thinking about what empowering leadership means. I’d love your thoughts.
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