A Genius Move or a Recipe for Chaos? Giving Your Team More Freedom

Team autonomy is a powerful tool that inspirational leaders can use to foster trust, collaboration, and high performance within their teams – if done well. 

My POV: Unintentionally, through busyness, we can end up being too hands off when our intention was just to create autonomy. Autonomy doesn’t mean leaving our teams to fend for themselves; rather, it’s about providing the right level of support and guidance while giving them the space to make decisions and take ownership of their work.

What we know from research: Research indicates that even virtual teams with higher levels of autonomy exhibit increased trust and collaboration compared to teams with lower levels of autonomy. When leaders trust their teams and give them greater decision-making power and responsibility, it can lead to increased engagement and commitment.

As a Leader, what can you do?

• The best thing you can do is set them up well at the beginning. Invest more energy at the start and be clear about your expectations – don’t make assumptions they know.
• Ask your team what input would be useful from you along the way. I find that sometimes what the team would find useful is different to what I would have expected. I love when someone says to me, “Rebecca, this is what I would appreciate from you, and this is what I don’t need!”
• Remove obstacles and provide resources to set your team up for success, such as eliminating bottlenecks and giving specialist support.

What difference will it make? By giving our teams more autonomy, we demonstrate trust in their abilities and create an environment where they feel motivated to take ownership of their work and contribute their best efforts.

Never miss an insight. Receive our newest and unpublished leadership insights straight to your inbox every fortnight — sign up HERE