In this post, I will offer five additional ways to equip others for success. To find out the first five, please read: 10 Ways To Equip Others For Success [Part 1]
The role you assume and the type of influence you exert will change throughout the equipping process. Sometimes a leader needs to serve in a role similar to that of a travel agent. You’ll get people prepared and send them on their way. At other times, a leader’s role in the equipping process will look like a tour guide. You’ll walk alongside others and help them navigate the unfamiliar areas so they can move forward toward success.
While training is a vital part of equipping others, there are many more ways to come alongside and add value to the people you work with. Here are five additional ways you can focus your time and energy in the equipping process.
Empowering
You empower people by giving them choices and letting them decide. Choice builds commitment. The creative capabilities of others are diminished when they feel like they are micro-managed every step along the way. With responsibilities should come the authority to carry out those responsibilities. People need to have some space to make decisions on their own.
Modeling
One of the best ways to come alongside someone else and equip them for a task or assignment is through modeling. Here’s a simple, five-step process to take your potential leader through:
1. I DO IT.
In this stage, the you are the one who is doing all the work. (and NOT leading)
2. I DO IT AND YOU ARE WITH ME.
Now the potential leader observes how you do the work. It is important for you to share the “why’s” of the work more than the “how’s.” This will allow the potential leader to add his or her own unique strengths in accomplishing the task.
3. YOU DO IT AND I AM WITH YOU.
The role of observer switches from the potential leader to you. You are now watching to give assessment and support.
4. YOU DO IT.
You set the potential leader free to do the work. But the job’s not done…
5. YOU DO IT AND SOMEONE IS WITH YOU.
Equip the potential leader to continue the process and invest in someone else.
Motivating
Continually connect what people are doing to the mission, vision, and purpose of the team. Show them the intrinsic value of what they’re doing and how it benefits them personally. People are motivated by an internal sense that they are doing significant and meaningful work.
Assisting
Equipping is a personal and ongoing journey. People should have access to you during the process, intercom conversion can streamline your interactions with employees and mentees. Equipping them may come in the form of serving as a mentor, advisor, or coach. Sometimes, merely having another person in the room to talk things through helps us to think more clearly and move in the proper direction. Your best communication tool as a leader is the ability to listen.
Evaluating
Develop ways to measure how effective a person’s performance is. Even though feedback can be uncomfortable, it is a useful and necessary tool. As you communicate suggestions and observations to those whom you work with, make sure they know it is for their own growth and improvement. People will perform better and accept evaluations more readily if they know it is already built into the process.
One of the goals I have in the equipping process is to equip others to do something even better than I can (in most areas, that’s not too difficult). Don’t let your ego get in the way of helping others to be successful. I believe the following words are true: “The greatest leader is willing to train people and develop them to the point that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability.” -Fred A. Manske, Jr.
Feel free to comment on the list. In fact, I would love your feedback on the following question: If your goal is to equip someone else to be successful, what tools or measurements do you use to determine if your process has been successful?
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