Are you attempting to control the WHAT and HOW of your Team? If so, as the Leader you are probably the bottleneck in your organization. Perhaps it is time for you to release the HOW of work to your team so they can do it better than yourself. Empowerment to do a task is a “Force Multiplier.” Here are 5 insights on stopping the bottleneck.

Accept the reality you do not have all the best ideas. Your competence and experience may have helped you to rise in leadership responsibility, but it may be the very thing that stunts organizational progress. Stop over-relying on your ability. You may not have the best and brightest ideas for the current situation. Your past experience does not necessarily make you an expert today.

What is your personal growth plan? Leaders can over-play their experiences of the past and inhibit new lessons and insights from our modern day. Yesterday ended at midnight! Today is your best opportunity for personal growth and development. A diversified growth strategy increases your ability for critical thought. You are able to realize that other people can do a task better than myself.

Your Team will bring fresh ideas. If you have to direct every detail, your team is simply waiting to be told what to do next. Stagnation occurs! Your Team becomes passive rather than proactive. Teach your Team to think for themselves. They will embrace the ownership issue and will begin to bring fresh thinking to the table of discussion.

Your Team will be stretched to accomplish more. Isn’t it frustrating when people only do the bare minimum? This may be due to a lack of motivation that comes from empowerment to make better decisions. When you Team members feel empowered to make decisions and they are valued, motivation increases. When leaders let go of the HOW the teams dreams actually become bigger.

Future Focused. Leaders should be ahead of the Team when it concerns future direction. When you are busy managing the HOW, you can easily loose sight of the WHAT. Managing the daily how-to marginalizes creative time to see bigger dreams. Define your WHAT. Release the HOW. You elevate the leadership and empowerment of the Team as a whole.

The genesis of the article come from John Maxwell and Carey Nieuwhof