How to Get Your Employees to Assume Leadership Roles

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All employees want to assume leadership roles and get promoted, right? Not necessarily. Some managers have a difficult time finding even a couple of workers who are willing to step into leadership positions. This can really hurt a company that needs to move employees into management positions.

So, how can you, a supervisor, get your employees to assume leadership positions and eventually and get promoted? The answer is more simple than you may think.

What Does Ownership Have to Do with Leadership?

If you want to get employees interested in taking leadership positions, you must first entice them with ownership of their responsibilities. Until they take ownership of their projects and responsibilities, they probably won’t be inspired to become better leaders.

Joe Taylor, a contributor to Recruiter.com, discussed the concept of ‘extreme ownership’ and its ability to “create leadership at every level.” He wrote,

‘Extreme ownership’ is the practice of owning everything in your world to an extreme degree. It means you are responsible for not just those tasks which you directly control, but for all those tasks that affect whether or not your mission is successful.”

How to Get Workers to Take ‘Extreme Ownership’ and Assume Leadership Roles

Encouraging your employees, no matter what level of supervisory authority they have over others, to take extreme ownership of their jobs is critical to moving them into management positions. One way to get people to take ownership of their work lives is to delegate effectively.

Are You Delegating Effectively?

It’s possible that your employees aren’t taking ownership of their responsibilities because they don’t know what they are. The Muse stated,

Often, employees don’t make decisions or take ownership of work because they’re not quite sure if they should. You can solve this problem by making sure you’re delegating effectively. Delegation is more than just assigning projects—it’s about clearly communicating where the decision-making power lies and allowing your employees to hold themselves able to take responsibility for their results.”

If you aren’t delegating effectively, that could be a major reason why your employees aren’t taking ownership at work. Another way to encourage ownership is to provide employees with the skills they need to be better leaders.

Why Leadership Training is Important

If you want your employees to become better leaders, offer them leadership training. This doesn’t have to be formal or costly. A great way to do this is to set up mentor/mentee relationships. Also, providing soft skills training goes a long way in developing future leaders.

What are some ways you as a manager encourage employees to assume leadership roles? Share your thoughts in the section below.

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