Are You An Empowering Leader?

A leader can’t truly empower others if they themselves want to hold on to all the power and be the star. A good leader may impress others, but a great leader empowers them. Inspiring leaders are secure enough within themselves to entrust power to those closest to them. When you can empower those around you, it creates a culture of true teamwork in your organization. In his book, Leadership Is Dead: How Influence Is Reviving It, Jeremie Kubicek wrote, “To empower is a gift of leadership. Accomplishing goals while earning the gratitude of an engaged team creates a lasting legacy of great leadership. The leader who hogs the work and the glory may reap short-term benefits, but over the long term he creates a cynical workforce that is reluctant to follow and ill-prepared to lead.”

In order to achieve a higher level of success, you must be ready to entrust power to those you lead. You have to be willing to see others succeed beyond your own success. This may seem like a simple idea, but many leaders struggle when others get more attention than they do. One of the greatest obstacles that block a leader’s ability to empower others is ego. The insecurity of losing the spotlight can diminish a leader’s ability to delegate to the people around them.

Adolf Hitler interviewed thirty candidates to be his personal chauffeur. His primary qualification wasn’t based on experience, skill, or personality; it was based on whoever the shortest man was. Infatuated with power and appearance, Hitler wanted to appear tall and muscular in the public spotlight. He wanted others around him short and small, to build up his own appearance. In fact, the man that Hitler picked to be his chauffeur was so short they literally had to build a special seat for him with blocks under it so he could see the road ahead. Insecure leaders try to make themselves appear better than those around them. Their ego keeps them from truly raising others up. Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “A platoon leader doesn’t get his platoon to go by getting up and shouting, ‘I am smarter. I am bigger. I am stronger. I am the leader.’ He gets them to go along with him because they want to do it for him and they believe in him.”

It takes a great deal of humility to be a truly successful leader. Humble leaders achieve more through others because of their ability to let go of arrogant pride. I came across this poem that sums up what it takes to be a humble leader. It’s called the “Indispensable Man” by Saxon White Kessinger.

Sometime when you’re feeling important;

Sometime when your ego’s in bloom;

Sometime when you take it for granted,

You’re the best qualified in the room:

Sometime when you feel that your going,

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions,

And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it up to the wrist,

Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,

Is a measure of how much you’ll be missed.