How to Empower Emerging Leaders: Strategy, Resources, and Accountability

Photo by Andreea Avramescu on Unsplash

I remember the first time I had the permission and power to act on my behalf as a vocational leader. I was in full-time campus ministry and assigned the whole fraternity system as my focused field. It was up to me to thoroughly assess and analyze the nature and makeup of the fraternity environment. I was free to determine the initial strategies that would surface interested men in what we had to offer as a ministry. And I could choose who to focus on to build a team and create momentum. I certainly had a clear level of supervision throughout my efforts. Looking back, it was a very encouraging season of leadership development and growth that has continued to serve me to this day. I learned the basics of strategy formulation, problem-solving, and various people skills.

The first job of every leader is to raise up more leaders. One of the more impactful ways to follow through on this endeavor is through emerging leader empowerment. An emerging leader is someone who is being formed or shaped for greater responsibility. To empower someone means to commission them to act on their own behalf. When you grant a measure of power and authority to a leader who is in the formation process, you are literally granting them permission to act.

There are three primary markers of true empowerment:

• Decision-making authority

  • You must allow the emerging leader a realm of decision-making authority to be truly empowered. To decide something is to make a reasonable conclusion given the situation and the strategic objective. You must become comfortable allowing a leader to succeed and fail. Decision-making will help an emerging leader to grow in analysis, strategic thinking, stakeholder understanding, and communication.

• Adequate resource allocation

  • You must provide the emerging leader with adequate resources to be truly empowered to move any strategy or initiative forward toward the intended result. Resources include people, budget, and existing tools. This initial allocation will help an emerging leader grow in stewardship and consequential thinking.

• Proper accountability

  • You must provide the emerging leader with proper accountability to be truly empowered. No emerging leader is free to do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. Healthy accountability along the way helps ensure an emerging leader's growth in holistic responsibility.

But what does healthy accountability look like? What is involved? There are three primary elements here as well.

• Agreed upon goals and timelines

  • Good accountability is a relational and structured process that helps promote follow-through on commitments. The first step is to mutually determine what those commitments look like by establishing clear goals and timelines for completing any process, strategy, or project.

• Regular check-ins for monitoring progress and assessment of needs

  • Launching an emerging leader and only evaluating the final result is insufficient. To nurture a culture of learning and growth, you must create a rhythm of check-ins. The point of the check-in is not merely to remind them of the deadline. The key elements are assessing progress, determining stuck points, or where the emerging leader might face a critical barrier. One of your roles is to help remove impediments and add necessary resources to aid the emerging leader's success. Don't forget that the most crucial resource may be a dose of hope and encouragement along the way.

• Overall learning and principled growth

  • Never assume learning and growth. Most emerging leaders need a sounding board to help them see current growth and determine future growth areas. Once a project or strategy has concluded, set up a formal debrief session to help the emerging leader capture clear leadership principles and steps of realized development. By the way, don't forget to celebrate a goal accomplished and work well done!

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