Team Members: 5 Ways to Communicate You Are Empowered Not Entitled
by Kate Nasser | 9 Comments »
Empowered Not Entitled: Communicating for Success
Team members, picture yourselves as leaders or managers. Would you want to lead and manage empowered employees or entitled ones?
The responses overwhelmingly come back, empowered not entitled. Leaders and managers agree too. The question is why?
Communicate You Are Empowered Not Entitled. Image licensed from Istock.com.
Empowered Not Entitled: When Everyone Serves, Everyone Wins!
Empowered team members engage and contribute for maximum success. They step up; they don’t sit back. They give to everyone; they don’t wait to receive. When everyone serves, everyone wins.
Communicate You Are Empowered Not Entitled
- Give more than you request.
- Correct your mistakes and help others to mend theirs.
- Offer sincere apologies when you impact others badly.
- Focus on everyone succeeding not getting what others have.
- Create your rewards by contributing your talents and effort vs. demanding rewards now.
Bold Illustration
One team member emailed his manager, “I would like to work from home three days a week. How can you make this happen for me?” The language he used communicated he felt entitled. He expected others to do for him. This attitude is a dead weight against success. It burdens and weighs down leaders, managers, and teams.
The manager explained that she wasn’t his concierge. If he wanted to explore new ideas, he should first ask if it’s possible, offer what he would do to make it happen, and outline the benefits to the organization. This is how you communicate you are empowered not entitled!
If a team were comprised of all entitled team members, what would it accomplish? Conversely empowered team members engage and contribute for all to win. Are you a welcome contributor or an annoying maverick?
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
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Teamwork: Are You a Welcome Contributor or an Annoying Maverick?
Teamwork Collaboration: Leadership Beliefs That Kill It
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Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
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Hi Kate,
Interesting topic as usual.
In the section I work for, we have many entitled employees. We have different level of seniority within the section and the more senior people think that they should get an easy promotion because they’ve been working for the company for years and when a younger person gets a deserved promotion, they complain to management about feeling discriminated!
Your last statement summarizes it all 🙂
“Leaders, do your part. Reward contribution not just bold requests for promotion.”
Regards,
Khalid
Thank you Khalid. You raise an interesting perspective — tenure of employment vs. contributions.
Sometimes it’s the senior people who feel entitled and other times it’s the young ones coming in. Either way, entitled doesn’t produce results 🙂
Kate
Great piece, Kate! The easiest way to turn around from entitlement to empowerment is proactively giving… not taking. I’m totally with you! When we think we’re owed something, it completely changes our attitude. The key is for leaders and managers to empower their people to GIVE! In a controlling culture, the leaders clearly feel entitled to compliance with a do it for me, this way, like I say and when I say it attitude. Leaders need to model the way for trust, empowerment and giving to become a part of the fabric of the organization.
This is a simple, powerful and spot on read for leaders at all levels.
~ Alli
Many thanks Alli. You summed it up so clearly, “When we think we’re owed something, it completely changes our attitude.”
And that change — changes everything and everybody we touch in a limiting burdensome way.
Best wishes and thanks,
Kate
Love your take on this, Kate! You cannot be perceived as entitled when your focus is to give, to contribute.
Exactly where I think everyone can shine the most Blair. When people replace the ‘gimme gimme’ statements — blunt or subtle — with giving and doing, it changes everything!
Thanks for your comment,
Kate