5 Reasons why your staff may not feel Empowered

1) Fear of delegating.  Many staff and managers don't like delegating because they fear other people will have more control.    This often steps from insecurities in the manager and a fear of  what would happen if they ' let go'   It's good to remind people that you are they are not training people in order to be replaced, but letting go to allow them to be self responsible and stand in their own personal power.

2)    An empowered organization starts with empowered management.  This includes hiring staff who possess a healthy self esteem.  If your management team is filled with negativity, low morale and distrust, this will not motivate staff to do business in a productive and positive way.  Empowerment training often needs to begin from the top.

3) Inflexible Management  Empowered staff require flexible management.   Staff will easily lose motivation and enthusiasm if any attempts to suggest ideas, be creative or improve productivity are shut down immediately.  Failure to feedback to staff  on ideas put forward will also suppress empowerment.

4) No sense of Contribution or Making a difference.   
Making a contribution is a key human need.  Therefore, valuing the opinions and ideas of each employee encourages empowerment.  If staff feel there ideas are not listened to or take seriously, they will quickly switch off to making any type of contribution.

5) Poor Communication In empowered companies, the lines of communication are open and well defined. Fear of the unknown and poor communication channels can lead to mixed and confusing messages and demoralized employees.