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Empowerment is built on trust and a healthy relationship cultivated between leaders and their direct reports. With empowerment comes an obligation to call out troubling situations that have gone ignored. This is most difficult for leaders who greatly care about the person, but that's when it is most critical. How much trust can there really be if something obvious is being avoided? When providing feedback, these steps should help the leader: • Take accountability for actions; • Describe the situation and behaviors; • Assign accountability to the direct report for identifying and implementing a solution. For example: "I have to tell you, I feel guilty for not having brought up this issue sooner, but I have so much respect for you, I need to share with you something I should have said a long time ago. I'm concerned you are losing credibility when you are unprepared for client sessions and not meeting deadlines. I'm confident you would never do anything to intentionally harm your credibility or ours. What do you think you can do to turn the situation around?" Empowered direct reports know when and how they have fallen short of expectations so they can feel the success of implementing a solution.

Recently, we’ve seen an uptick in coaching leaders on how to lead their remote team. Leaders are often suspicious about the productivity of remote workers. Remote workers who previously enjoyed working for a particular leader are suddenly frustrated as they find that same leader using a micro-managing manner not previously experienced. The fact is, whether an employee is working remotely or under direct supervision, these frustrations often occur because we’re trying to measure time in a chair, or at an activity, rather than on outcomes, deliverables, or success factors. If we lead based on performance measurements and culture fit, our direct report (especially if they’re a superstar) will be MUCH happier and will generally achieve greater levels of success, and we as leaders will be far less frustrated. The typical job description is generally just a laundry list of activities ending with “and other duties as assigned.” We recommend an Accountability Matrix or Performance Acceleration Tracker (PAT) instead (see below). Detailed instruction on how to create an Accountability Matrix of PAT can be found at our website www.themetissgroup.com . Imagine taking that laundry list, and slotting all those activities into 3-5 primary accountability buckets. Oh, you may need to add things like attend meetings, demonstrate Core Values, pursue personal/professional development that are often forgotten. Then prioritize those buckets, assign a percentage of time to be spent in each, and create the success factors – how will you know if the incumbent has done their job well enough to keep it? Then review monthly or at least quarterly to make sure you and your direct report are on the same page. Empower the success of your direct reports by clarifying expectations!

Effective leaders are always "trolling for talent" and meeting and qualifying prospective new hires. Effective hiring managers keep a file of potential new hires they have met in the last year - just in case they have an opening. Good and bad economies provide opportunities for leaders to be meeting with potential new hires. Even though the leader is not in a position to hire, meeting new potential candidates and "building a bench" is an on-going process. Hiring managers should set aside time each month to meet with potential candidates and grow the bench. This will increase the new hire success rate when a position opens up. Empowered hiring managers who are constantly looking for new talent will make more successful hires.

Organizations that claim, "Our employees are our greatest asset," should be doing regular one-on-one sessions with those assets. There is no better way to maximize talent "assets" than weekly one-on-ones. When the leader or their direct reports travel, the tendency might be to skip the one-on-one sessions. Don't do it; conduct the sessions by phone or video meeting instead. It is important for the one-on-one meeting rhythm to be maintained. One-on-ones sessions build relationships and trust. Productive relationships and enduring trust stem from predictability. Rescheduling one-on-one sessions because either the leader or direct reports are not in the office disrupts this crucial rhythm. This applies to working remotely too. Whether it is the leader or direct report who is working out of the office, maintaining a consistent, predictable rhythm to communications keeps the empowered momentum going. The purpose of one-on-ones has always been centered on the needs of the direct report. Communication needs increase when either is out of the office. Leaders who empower direct reports to maintain one-on-one meeting rhythms even when out of the office experience continued success.

Leaders should be providing feedback to their direct reports every day. Often leaders want to save their feedback for the weekly one-on-one meetings or, worse, performance review sessions. Don't overlook the importance of positive feedback – leaders should be giving much more positive feedback than course corrections. Some effective positive feedback examples are: "I like the poise you demonstrated on that phone call. "Thanks for coming in early to print the sales reports." "Your contributions and ideas in the meeting were helpful to the team." "Great job assisting Sue with her presentation." One way for leaders to remind themselves of the importance of daily feedback is to put some coins (start with 3-5) in their left pocket and whenever they give positive, on-the-spot feedback, move a coin to their right pocket. At the end of the day, add the coins in the right pocket to a fund to use as a reward for being a great leader. Giving frequent, immediate feedback empowers direct reports to be more productive and teams to be more successful.

According to bestselling author Jim Collins, humility is a key ingredient of Level 5 leadership. His simple formula is Humility + Will = Level 5. "Level 5 leaders are a study in duality; modest and willful, shy and fearless," says Collins. Collins is also a noted leadership speaker, collecting over $75,000 per speaking event. As you can imagine, those speaking events attract some very accomplished leaders. One question Collins asks in his sessions is for the leaders in the crowd to raise their hand if they think they are a Level 5 leader. Inevitably many leaders raise their hands. Collins then, much to the leaders' chagrin, says, "a Level 5 leader would never raise their hand." Collins' point is Level 5 leaders with all their humility would never admit they are an accomplished leader; that they are always striving to be better and never satisfied with their performance. Level 5 leaders look in the mirror during bad times and out the window during good times. Humble leaders are not afraid to seek outside counsel to make their organizations better knowing they don't have all the answers. Empowered leaders pursue Level 5 leadership and they, along with their teams, experience greater success.

Too often leaders remember to set a completion date for their direct reports when delegating a project, but often forget the other important time frames: total time dedicated and milestone dates. By setting overall time commitments leaders provide a guideline for the depth of involvement. For example, "Jen, I need this report by Friday and expect it shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to complete." For a longer, more elaborate project: "I would imagine this should take about 10 hours per week through completion; if you find it takes more than that, we should discuss." Leaders should remember setting the next milestone with time and expectation gives the direct report some autonomy and should prevent leaders from running into their direct report’s office asking, "Are we done yet?" or "Let me see what you've got so far." For example, "Let's meet next Friday at 9:00 to discuss which vendors you are considering before we lay out our next milestone." Leaders who empower their direct reports with clarity around time commitments and check-in dates to avoid ambiguity have better alignment of expectations and experience greater success.

If a leader’s direct reports are doing the same job, with the same responsibilities, two years from now, the leader has done a poor job. A leaders job is to grow their direct reports and prepare them for added responsibilities or to be moved on. Often leaders fail to groom their direct reports because they don't have a succession plan for the activities currently being performed. What if a direct report suddenly leaves? What is the succession plan? It’s easy for leaders neglect the important, not urgent task of planning for a direct report’s succession. Part of each direct report's succession plan should be to have all key job functions documented. Leaders should make it the direct report's responsibility (maybe one of their quarterly goals) to create the documentation. Knowing there is a plan should something happen to direct reports will allow leaders to further empower them to grow and succeed in their current role or a new one (and allow the leader to have a successful night’s sleep).

Many hiring managers choose to not administer pre-employment assessments for lower paying jobs – this may be a mistake. Hiring managers rely on assessments to help them uncover candidate strengths and weaknesses that are not easily recognized in an interview but need to be explored in reference checks and subsequent interviews. These are the same strengths and weaknesses that can give the leader a competitive advantage or future headaches. Hiring managers need to know that before making the hire. Managers sometimes skip investing in an assessment because the investment doesn’t seem to make sense for a lower paying position. When faced with this decision, consider the answers to the following questions: How much impact does this person’s performance make on the organization? If they make a mistake, how much could it cost? If they are an awesome addition, how does that impact profit? Will this person be in a support role to superstars — what impact could that have on the superstar as well as the work itself? Will this person interact with customers directly? If they are a poor hire, who will need to put in extra time and effort to correct or complete the work? How much more will that cost? If performance isn’t as expected, how much additional time will be needed to coach through performance issues, and what’s that time worth? Empowered hiring managers use assessments for all their openings to build successful teams.

Most leaders are familiar with the Chinese proverb: "Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” A leader should be challenging their direct reports to be always growing. One easy way for leaders to develop their direct reports is to empower them to chair the team's weekly staff meetings. This popular empowerment technique achieves many purposes. First, it develops direct reports to run effective meetings. Secondly, it saves the leader time, as they are no longer responsible for meeting preparation and follow-up. Finally, leaders become more productive in the meetings as they are more focused on the content and less on the process. Leaders who empower and encourage their direct reports to always be growing will experience more success.

Before he was famous, Leonardo da Vinci in 1482, at the age of 30, wrote out a letter listing his capabilities and sent it off to the Duke of Milan in hopes of getting a job. He is credited with submitting the first resume. In a recent Harris Poll on resumes conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder, 2,188 HR pros and hiring managers were asked to cite common exaggerations (i.e. lies) on resumes. Unlike da Vinci’s letter, most resumes today are reported to contain exaggerations or be flat out wrong. Here are the common resume falsehoods and percentages reported: • Skills — 57% • Responsibilities — 55% • Employment dates — 42% • Job titles — 34% • Academic degrees — 33% • Past companies worked for — 26% • Accomplishments and awards — 18% When conducting interviews and reference checks, hiring managers must be sure to validate resume facts. They should challenge candidates on the resume’s veracity and have little tolerance for inaccuracies or embellishments. Empowered hiring managers dig deeply into a candidate’s resume and make more successful hires.

When it comes to leading others within an organization, the most effective leadership practice is weekly one-on-one meetings between a leader and their direct reports. It accelerates performance because the one-on-one is all about the direct report and their needs. Specifically, the leader should ask: What is going on at work and in life that might impact performance or effectiveness this week; What activities is the direct report focused o this week; What obstacles have they run into; What resources are needed? When the direct report believes this simple 30 minutes each week is completely dedicated by the leader to focus on their success, the engagement and passion for results is unbelievable. Additionally, these meetings create trust between the direct report and the leader. When a direct report knows their leader will share information, trust soars. This is not the time for the leader to micromanage; the focus of the one-on-one is on the direct report and their needs – the leader is the resource, not the solution. Leaders who empower themselves and their direct reports to hold weekly one-on-one meetings experience much more success.