The Top 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Empower Your Team

Empowerment. What is it? Who needs it? What's the point?

Empowering others means giving them the ability to do their jobs without your interference. It means you give them the keys to the boat and you let them drive. But is empowerment for everyone? Can you get by without it? Let's take a look.

Here are the top 3 reasons you should NOT empower your team:

1: You can do it all!

You don't need anyone else. You are a self-contained and self-sustaining success story. Other people just get in your way. You're a one man or one woman show. Like Tiger Woods, Andy Roddick, and Tom Hanks in Terminal, you can win on your own.

Except you can't.

Nothing great has ever been achieved by one person acting alone. Every success comes about as a result of a team working together. (Tweet that!) Even if you play a one-person sport, you have a team backing you up, training you, and keeping you on track and moving toward your goals.

2: Your team doesn't need to grow.

Your team is already as successful as it needs to be. You're already selling all you can sell and helping everyone you can help. You've made it. Growth is for people who need to grow, you've already been there and done that. You've already won. You can stay where you are and live out your life in happiness.

Except you can't.

There will always be people to help, educate and care for. Your team needs to grow until you've achieved your mission. If you've already achieved it, pick a new and bigger one. The path to success is just that, a path; it is not a spot on the map. (Tweet that!)

3: Your team only has to do what you tell them to do.

You know best. All you need others for is to do what you tell them to do. You're already the smartest girl in the room, other people just need to recognize that and get in line to follow you. You can threaten and coerce each member of your team to do your bidding.

Except you can't.

Everyone on your team is someone's father, mother, son, cousin, husband, wife, etc. They each are the most important person in the world to someone who loves them.  (Tweet that!) Today, people have more choices than ever before. If you treat your team poorly, they will leave you.

Leadership is about empowering other people. It's not about being, as Jim Collins puts it in Good to Great, a “genius with a thousand helpers.” Leaders provide direction; they don't poke and prod until their teams are miserable.

Leaders treat people differently. They realize life is about connections and business is about people. (Tweet that!) To get what you want out of life, you have to help other people get what they want out of life.

Question: What other reasons can you come up with for not empowering your team? Have as much fun with it as you like! Share an example or two with me in the comments below by clicking here!