Employee Freedom: 10 Strategies for Team Success

If workers are happier and more productive in their job as a result of you giving them the freedom of making decisions on their own and choices of how they go about doing their job, and they accept accountability for those choices, along with it building trust, respect, and overall well-being for themselves and those around them, then why wouldn't more leaders provide more freedom and autonomy in the workplace? Well, in this episode, I want us to talk about the the benefits and the impacts of employee freedom and give you 10 strategies that you can use with yourself and your team and then measure the transformation and growth of your team and the results of the business. So I am confident that if you try one or more of these strategies, you will, you will gain highly effective, productive, happier, and successful team members team and the overall business. So stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shading the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this. You may have already heard the troubling statistics around employee engagement, employee effectiveness, overall job satisfaction, but let's remind ourselves of that— those figures, because we really have to ground ourselves in what is happening out there with our employees. But at the same time, what's happening to our employees is happening to our business and therefore our own personal and career goals. So according to Gallup, 85% of employees are not engaged in their work. Now, what does this mean? This means that, one, we should be jarred by that, that as a leader, we should be really concerned because it indicates that they're not giving their all. They're not even giving their best, and they don't care about the work that they're doing, let alone they may not have any commitment or loyalty to you or the business. At the same time, 52% of employees feel the absence of autonomy in the workplace, and that's according to Harvard Business Review. And that tells us that they really feel constrained, they feel restricted, they don't feel trusted to to be able to make their own decisions or choices about their job, but also about how they go about their job. According to Business Insider, 73% of employees are considering leaving their job even though they're not looking for a job. 73%. Leaving only, you know, that 27% that haven't considered it or may be in that kind of happy, satisfied, or they're just merely accepting the situation that they're in. Employees tuning out and only partially showing up at work will cost businesses $450 to $500 billion, according to Business Leadership Today. On the other hand, highly engaged workplaces generate 21% more profitability and 4 times greater revenue growth. If those metrics aren't good enough, then let's look at what it means to the employees themselves. Employees that are highly engaged feel as if they have freedoms to make the decisions that are critical to their job or make the choices that are necessary to do their job in the most effective, productive, and efficient way for themselves. Well, then what that means is they can be a lot more focused, a lot more committed and loyal and dedicated. They can build stronger relationships with those around them. They care. They have, you know, a commitment, a buy-in to the, the results of the business. They become great problem solvers and decision makers and delegators and contributors. They get very creative and very interested in business improvement. And so overall, you're creating, as a result of really giving them a culture and a workplace that is autonomous, that is flexible, that is engaging, that is respectful of the value that they bring, you're really creating highly successful, highly productive highly loyal employees, which obviously is going to increase employee retention and overall employee effectiveness, satisfaction, and happiness. Let's talk about 10 different— 10 strategies you could be using to really open up and give more freedom and more flexibility and more power or empowerment to your employees. So then you're getting back into the business, back into the results, far greater impact than what you might be experiencing today. And who doesn't want to get up every morning and walk into a very engaging, collaborative, um, meaningful and valued workplace as opposed to one that they feel diminished, they feel undervalued, they feel as if they don't have any control, they're very constrained and restricted. So we need to provide our, our teams and individual employees the opportunity to really do their job and use the skills and the expertise that we've hired them to, uh, leverage and to contribute each and every day. So let's talk through those 10 strategies. The first one would be where this episode is grounded in: employee freedom or autonomy. Creating a place where they feel, your employees feel, that they do have choice. They do have the ability to make decisions, especially in the scope of responsibility that they have. And when you want to encourage autonomy, you really want to provide that decision-making. You want to give them that power to not only rely on you almost to, to the point where you're micromanaging them, but they— you don't want them feeling constrained. You don't want them feeling handcuffed to not being able to take care of even some big decisions, let alone small decisions. That would keep the business moving and keep the momentum and the actions moving forward. So ensure that you are giving them not only the opportunity to make decisions, but you're also thinking about delegating even more decision-making to them. If you ever experienced maybe your boss or a team member transitioning out of their current role into a new role, or maybe they are leaving the company for whatever reason, And you, you, you know, you question, you know, how can that work or how can those projects or initiatives or role as a, as a total be, you know, transitioned or delegated to you? How can, you know, you be leveraging and given that opportunity to take on more responsibility, more activity in the team as a result? And so for some managers, it's hard to let go. It's hard to delegate. It's hard to give them, their employees, that freedom of taking on more, making more critical decisions, choosing for themselves how they go about accomplishing a task. And yet when you do, it really allows that your employees to feel valued, to feel important, to feel respected. To feel as if they're contributing what it is that they're supposed to be contributing in their role, but also given those opportunities to stretch themselves and to try things that they haven't done before. So really consider from our first strategy of encouraging autonomy is around delegate decision-making. Allow them the choice to, you know, to make decisions that you typically or someone else might typically make. Give them that responsibility, give them that that leeway to do that, it will empower them and make them feel as if they're more valued and contributing to the business and to the team. And therefore they'll be more loyal, more committed, and want to, want to uplevel what they're, what they're giving back into the business. The other one when it comes to autonomy is autonomy doesn't mean that you give them the freedom of making decisions and choices on their own, but then there's no constraint. There's no structure, there's no boundaries. And so part of, you know, really providing and encouraging autonomy is also making sure that you're setting clear expectations of how you expect things to operate, how you expect them to perform, what the boundaries are, what the give and take is, kind of what the threshold is on certain types of decisions that you're providing them. But be clear, be clear on what your goals and expectations are for them. And then that way they have their sandbox and they'll play in that sandbox. They might push, push the, the boundaries a little bit, but at least they'll have the sandbox that they know that they can operate in. It might have been small before, and now you're giving them the freedom, uh, and the autonomy to kind of extend that or expand that. And then you kind of give them the, the constraints. You give them those expectations so they know what it is that they're working toward and, and in what, in what boundaries and anything beyond that is where you come back involved. And it just allows them to feel more important and more critical to the business. All right. That leads into, you know, from a clear clear expectation perspective that leads into really ensuring that you're promoting an open communication within your team and within the business. Uh, but that starts with you. You need to be transparent. You need to be open. You need to be sharing. You need to be, you know, discussing with them those goals, those expectations, but also the issues, the risks, the results, the good, bad, or ugly, and really making sure that you're being as transparent as possible with them. So then they feel as if they are a critical part of a team and not just an individual contributor that, you know, really doesn't— is just a cog on the wheel. All right, so transparent communication along with providing employees freedom. Autonomy, that sandbox that could actually expand and expand and expand over time also does not mean that you wouldn't be kind of doing some check-ins, having some checkpoints in regards to how they're doing, what they're doing, how the decisions, you know, went that they made. If they are given that freedom to take risks, big or small, you you know, how did they turn out? Again, giving employees freedom doesn't mean that they're just let go and that they have no— anybody observing them, anybody, you know, holding them accountable, anybody responsible for them. Through open communication, being very transparent, you're also being transparent and being open and engaging and collaborating those touch bases with them to ensure they have what they need. And if they don't have what they need, you're there to support it. If they need any, any advice or any guidance or just to kind of get a, you know, good job, then, you know, that's, that's what you're there for as a leader. The first one is encouraging autonomy, and the second one would be to promote open communication. So you have to, as number 3, you have to create an environment that's built on trust. And that's, again, that starts with you as the leader. If your team doesn't trust you, then you're not going to be able to influence them and lead them where you need them to go. And so you need to be ensuring that you're building that trust, and you can build that trust in even the first few things that we talked about, giving them that freedom. To make decisions and choices of their own, trusting that they have the skills. You've hired them for a reason, or you even acquired them if, if you were promoted into a, to a team, and they have the skills and the talents and what's needed in order to do the job. Or you trust that if they don't, they are resourceful enough to go and find what it is that they need, uh, in order to get the job done. But you can build trust in that open communication, that transparency, that freedom of decision-making and making choices, setting those clear expectations and those goals, and continuing to create a space that is open, that is safe, that is non-judgmental, that is, you know, just completely supportive in every way, shape, or form. Where you're concerned as the leader along with them. So trust is critical because without trust as the foundation, without trust, you don't have anything. And so if there's one thing that a leader should focus on each and every day to ensure it's already instilled, and if not, then what is it going to take to instill it? It's trust. Okay. And then along with that culture of trust would be trust also means not only those decisions and those choices, but those risks that we talked about, allowing your, your team members, your children, so to speak, to go and take risks, make mistakes, have successes, gain lessons, you know, whatever it takes, but that you trust them to be able to take those risks. And again, you're there as a support system. All right. So that's 3 is all around trust. So we have encourage autonomy, we have promote open communication and create a culture of trust. The next one would be ensure that they have the tools and the resources that they need to do their job. I can't tell you how often I will hear that from clients or their team members. I'll hear, I don't, I don't have the tools, I don't have the resources, I don't have the training. We don't have the processes and the procedures in place that are needed in order for us to do our jobs as effectively and efficiently as possible. And that immediately creates, you know, very stressed, very, very tuned out employees when they feel as if they're just kind of, you know, a cog on a wheel who's just struggling to get the job done because there aren't there isn't an infrastructure of resources and support in order for them to do their job as best as they can. So make sure they have access to tools and training. Make sure that they're getting the development that they need, you know, the mentoring, the coaching, the sponsors that they need that comes from both you and external sources. So obviously there's a degree of what, what you need to be doing on a day-in, day-out basis to develop and coach and support your team members, providing them the training and the tools that are needed day in and day out. But then maybe there's a more formal structure development plan at an individual level or a team level that, you know, then is externally, you know, supported from a third party. However it might be, you need to ensure that you're providing those tools and that support and those resources if you want your team members to be that high-functioning, high-contributing, productive, effective, efficient, individual and team. All right. So that would be number 4. Number 5 would be, and this is the number 1 thing I heard during some focus groups I did for an organization most of last year, and it can't be said enough, is number 5 would be they need feedback. They need good, bad, or ugly. They need to hear from you. That they've done a great job, that you appreciate their contribution. You appreciate them even trying. You appreciate even that they took a risk. They screwed up, they made a mistake, and yet, you know, they worked through it. You appreciate the hours that they're putting in or the overtime, the, you know, days of vacation that they lost as a result. They need to hear where they're doing well and where they need to improve. Feedback was the number one thing that employees asked of their managers. And this didn't, you know, this didn't start or stop at the ground level. This was all the way up a food chain where even the highest level managers or senior executives, as people would call them, are also looking for feedback from their own managers. So ensure, ensure that if you want, you know, highly functioning, highly productive, effective employees with a culture and a workplace that is also highly functioning and successful, then you need to ensure that you're putting in the time to do the, you know, to provide the feedback, provide the coaching, to provide that development. To your team members, uh, because they need to hear from you. Regular basis, I would call it. Yet at the same time, it should be when it's happening. If there's an issue, address it when it happens. Don't avoid it. Don't deflect it. Don't, you know, think it's gonna go away. And if it's something that they did, you know, uh, successfully and they deserve accolades and recognition, then make sure that they're getting that recognition. So ensure that you are providing feedback and recognizing the work that they're doing. All right. The next one, number 6, would be to ensure— this kind of extends off of the providing the tools and the support, but this would be ensure that there is a singular focus on their development, their professional development, their career path. I can't tell you how many times an individual, a professional will say to me, I have no idea what my opportunities are. I have no idea what the next level would be. You know, granted, they might know the next rung on the ladder that they would assume is their opportunity. At the same time, it's so much more involved than that because say you have skills and talents and passions and hobbies that are outside of what it is that you're currently doing. So real, you know, professional development, real career pathing and planning looks at not only where you are and what the traditional ladder is, but it looks at where are your skills best suited, where opportunities, you know, can take you into a totally different direction and where should you be focused on. To make sure that we're leveraging the, you know, the entire package of talent and skills that one has. A second element of the professional development strategy would be more times than not, I'll look at someone's performance review and all there will be is the standard business metric goals. You know, what they were supposed to be doing for projects or initiatives or the business metrics like sales, revenue, profit, whatever the case might be. And there aren't personal or even leadership professional goals stated in their, in their goals, in their performance reviews. And whether it's in your performance reviews or outside of it, you still need to ensure that you're encouraging yourself and your team members to have those personal goals. What is it they want to achieve in their own path, in their own career, in their own journey that you can then support them with? So you as a leader should be ensuring that you as well have not only your business metrics, but also your personal/professional goals, but also your Uh, team members need to have them as well, and that should be a conversation with you because as the senior or the more seasoned individual, you can help them scope out what it is that they might want to be pursuing to enhance and enrich their overall resume, so to speak. All right. So professional development is key and it's number 6. Number 7 would be create that flexibility. For your team members. You know, the, the old days of 9 to 5 in an office, they're gone. All right. They're just gone and they're gone forever. Now, not to say that there aren't companies, uh, with that requirement and that there aren't office buildings full of employees. At the same time, I've even was blessed in my career to have had a company even 25 years ago that recognized that it didn't matter where we were when it, when it came to doing our job, as long as the job got done. And so, you know, I have worked in a remote environment, a very independent, autonomous environment for most of my adult career life. And I, you know, don't take that for granted. But at the same time, you have that opportunity to, to do it as well for yourself and for your team members. Your number one concern, as well as the company's number one concern, should be ensuring that the job gets done and ensuring that not only the job gets done because you, you don't want just average or mediocre, but you know that even, you know, that it's even that much greater or better or richer or, or enhanced. And therefore, if you have individuals— and I'll be coaching clients on this around their team members quite regularly— if you have team members that would work much better in a, in a quieter, solo, individual, um, remote type of environment, away from, you know, distractions, away from other team members, away from the coffee, you know, the water cooler conversations, that they work much better at home multiple days a week, maybe coming in, whatever that schedule might be, then you really need to consider that. But oftentimes I'll find managers kind of stick to their guns around, nope, they have to be here just because it's the what they want, not what's best for your employee. And if you want the best out of your employee, you need to consider what is best for your employee. And so should you and your company have that flexibility and/or if it doesn't and yet you want to provide that flexibility, then you as the leader could be advocating for that and ensuring that you're providing your team members the best opportunity to be successful. So number 7 around flexibility in the workplace looks like 2 things. It looks like, you know, what is that environment that you're providing for an individual based on how best they work? But also, what are those hours? What is that schedule? What's that structure that they work in? We take for granted that it has to be 8 hours a day and it has to be continuous, you know, 9 to 5, 7 to 3, whatever the case might be. However, I'm, for example, the type that I work best in the morning and in the evening. 4 to 7 are my weakest times. It's when I, my energy level just goes down, but then it comes back up at around 7, 8 o'clock. And so your employees may have that same type of effectiveness, that same type of attention and focus and energy. So really also consider what works best for your employee as well as yourself when it comes to their work schedule. Not only where they're working, you know, whether it's remote some days, in the office, in the office full-time, remote full-time, but also what are the hours? Um, are some best working, you know, 6 in the morning to 10, and then again from, you know, 2 to 6? So flexibility requires you looking at both of those things. All right. And then number 8 would be really ensuring that you are promoting team collaboration, that you're providing opportunities for your team to come together and really brainstorm, to really share what's happening, to discuss problems, to come up with new ideas, to, to discuss where everybody is within the work that they're doing, and even identifying areas where there should be or maybe overlaps, opportunities for cross-training, shadowing, mentoring, whatever the case might be. But you, you promoting team collaboration ensures that people are reaching out to each other when it comes to problem solving, decision making, uh, resolving conflict, uh, negotiating, whatever the case might be. So really ensure that you are not only, you know, expecting your team members to work within the function or the task group that they're responsible for, but they're also reaching out beyond it. It could be they're reaching out to the other team members on your functional team, but it could also mean that they're reaching out to the other functions, um, of the business or the organization in order to ensure that the job gets done as thoroughly and effectively as possible. Uh, I find that a lot of individuals like to work in their silo, in their function, and they don't necessarily consider how individuals in other functions can be supporting them. And yet they're missing out on some big opportunities for new ideas, new solutions, new, you know, decision-making, so forth and so on. So really consider that through promoting your team's collaboration, that it's not only functional, it's cross-functional, and that they are collaborating in such a way that they're considering other people's viewpoints, other people's beliefs, other people's ideas, other people's problem solving. And not just closing it off or shutting it off because it's not their idea or it's not their belief or it's not, you know, what they wanna be doing. So ensure through team collaboration that you're promoting it cross-functional and you're promoting it that it is open and flexible and transparent and autonomous for everyone involved. All right. Uh, number 9 would be that you really want to ensure or that there is mechanisms in place for them and you to receive feedback. So one could be, you know, a big subject in businesses is between manager effectiveness, employee effectiveness. So, you know, what are some mechanisms that you could be using in order to capture how things are actually happening, um, on the ground? Now, it could be just at your team's level, but it could have other stakeholders involved and impacted as a result. And you always want to stay kind of on top of the pulse, I'll call it, of the business and how things are operating, how, how people are feeling, how people are experiencing not only the, the business or the company, but even you. So even from like a 360 assessment perspective, you always want to know in advance, proactively, that you're meeting expectations of your people. At the very beginning of this conversation, we talked about you setting the clear expectations and the goals to your team members. Well, you also wanna make sure that you are meeting expectation of your team members. So Really ensure that there is a, a feedback loop and mechanisms put into place for you to receive feedback. And lastly, we have to talk about accountability because just as vital as trust is to a business, to a team, so is accountability. Now, I have learned over the years that accountability isn't a bad thing. Accountability is really just reminding someone of a commitment they made, of a responsibility that they have. And therefore, whether it's you individually being accountable and owning something that, you know, an action or behavior, you're also ensuring that you and your team members are holding each other accountable. So by doing so, you can ensure that everyone is fulfilling their obligations. So we talked earlier about setting clear expectations, clear goals, and therefore if you are clearly stating those goals, those expectations, maybe you're defining the roles of each team member so they fully understand what their scope of responsibility is. Well, then when someone goes out of line, out of scope, whether it's you or a team member, then all someone would need to do is remind you or them that they're not following through on their role and responsibility. They're not following through on the commitment they made. They're not following through on the obligation that they have to a team member, to a project, whatever the case might be. And in order for them to do that, in order for them to take that accountability, not only do they have to have it clearly communicated as to what their roles and responsibilities are, but those roles and responsibilities have to be well-defined to where there's no ambiguity. And you can get the, uh, what I'll call the buy-in that, yes, I'm, I'm clear on the roles and responsibilities and the expectations that, that I'm responsible for. And therefore, if I am not to fulfill them, then I won't be surprised if someone holds me accountable to them. You definitely want to ensure that each of your team members have very clear defined roles and responsibilities and, and that kind of that scope. So then when they do their job or don't do their job, then the accountability is aligned to that. Holding someone accountable is just reminding them of the roles and responsibilities and the objectives that you laid out for them clearly. Accountability is huge because, as I mentioned, you, you start a, a relationship of any kind with an individual or a team with a foundation of trust. People are only gonna trust if they feel that the accountability is in place, the mechanism for accountability, and then the follow-through on that accountability is in place because once accountability is neglected or avoided or deflected, then trust breaks down. Because if someone's not willing to remind or hold somebody accountable to something, well, that makes other people insecure and unsure of that individual. And so you don't want to start breaking down trust because you're not willing or you don't hold someone else accountable to following through on their own accountability. All right. Accountability is number 10. Let me recap very quickly the 10 strategies, and then you can decide if there's one or more or all that you want to start focusing on, or even creating a baseline of where are you today and where's the team when it comes to these, each of these strategies, and where do you want to move toward or shift toward in order to really create the employee freedom that will allow your team to develop into a high-functioning, highly successful team? All right. Number 1 was encourage autonomy. Number 2 was open communication. Number 3 was to foster a culture of trust. 4 is to provide the tools and the resources to your team. 5 would be to provide feedback and recognize contribution of your team members. Number 6 was encourage professional development, training, growth. Number 7 was really having a flexible work environment. Number 8 was team collaboration. Number 9 was employee feedback, making, making sure there's mechanisms for, for employee feedback. And then number 10 is accountability. So again, identify where you are today, where you want to be. Look at one or more or all of the strategies to see which you would want to start implementing and start tracking and measuring and working on. And if you have any doubt or any questions as to how to go about doing that, then definitely go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall. Schedule 30 minutes free complimentary time with me and I'll lay out a plan for you, for you to start taking steps to really creating a high-functioning, highly successful team built on employee freedom that will give you too the freedom that you need to become a powerhouse leader. All right. I am honored that you are here with us this week, and I look forward to having you for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Take care. Bye.