Oct 6th, 2020
Empowerment
Next-Level Teams
Written by: Jesse LaDousa, Chief Executive Officer
Over the last decade, we have developed a service offering that focuses on fielding teams to take a project from inception through production. These teams are hybrid on-shore/off-shore groups that work cohesively to build software solutions for our clients using agile methodologies to deliver high-quality results with a focus on transparency.
As we built this model, we learned many things along the way. We had various hiccups early on, adapting and adjusting to refine our communication, our delivery practices, the tooling we used, and the standards we impose on our outputs.
I could write numerous articles on the topics above (perhaps I will in the future), but for this series I thought I would focus on what may be the biggest key to our success with this model. The key that has allowed us to complete several hundred successful projects over the last decade with the fantastic teams we have assembled.
Empowerment.
Wikipedia defines empowerment as: “A set of measures designed to increase the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and communities in order to enable them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority.”
We embrace this concept and empower our teams by giving them the authority, autonomy, and responsibility to make decisions about their delivery of the project. Trust that you have hired great people and that they are able to produce great results. Give them feedback along the way but also listen carefully to their responses. This simple acknowledgement confirms that their voices are being heard.
Great teams are not managed top-down but rather given the autonomy to deliver in whatever way the team determines to be best. All teams, employees, and leaders need guidance along the way, but this guidance should come in the form of mentorship rather than dictatorship. Mentorship, and the expectation that mistakes will (and should) occur along the path of growth, builds trust between your team and its leadership – crucial to any high-performing organization.
Over the next few weeks, I plan to cover several topics around empowerment:
- Empowering Teams
- Empowering Employees
- Empowering Leadership/ Providing Mentorship
I am curious as to your experiences as well. Please let me know your thoughts and occurrences in this space!