Making Shift Happen Intentional Leadership Series Article 11 Leadershift Deep Dive: The Importance of Capability Building in the Empowerment Process

Welcome back to our Making Shift Happen Intentional Leadership series! We are back with another deep dive into our second leadershift “From Controlling to Trusting”, more specifically into our 4 Cs of Empowerment model. So far, we have already covered two of our four C’s, Courage, and Coaching. In this article, we want to explore the third C, Capability Building. Capability building is often overlooked in the empowerment process yet is crucial to the success of the empowerment process. 

In this article, we will explore the two sides of capability building, and the upsides of effective capability building of our teams.

The Capability Venn Diagram

When we think about capability building, our mind immediately goes to upskilling. However, this is only half of what effective capability building entails. It is also important to consider the capacity, or bandwidth, of our teams before we empower them with new tasks. Do they have enough time to take on more work?

Once we have established that our teams have enough capacity to take on their new tasks, it is necessary to assess what skills they need in order to find the required solutions. Here are some guiding questions that can help you with the assessment:

1.     Do our teams have enough bandwidth to take on a new task?

2.     What skills are required to complete the task?

3.     What skills do our teams have already?

4.     What other skills are needed?

5.     How do we ensure our teams learn these new skills?

As always, communication is key when assessing your team’s skills requirements. Using our coaching approach, ask questions to find out where they already feel confident, and where more training is necessary. Have open conversations of how the capability build can be realistically achieved, and what the best way there looks like. Refrain from just telling them what programme to take or what skill to learn. Instead, listen to their needs and tailor the right skill building process around what is there! 

Building new capabilities and strengthening existing ones aids the empowerment process. It gives our teams the right tools to complete their new tasks independently and gives them the self-confidence to explore their own solutions. 

Capability building is an investment into our teams and organisation. It ensures not just that your teams have the right skills and bandwidth to be empowered, but also that they are ready and equipped for fast-changing business demands As Libby Marks writes for Runn, “capability building is a proven way to future-proof your organization”.

How could you build the capabilities of your teams? Let us know in the comments!

Thank you! Thanks to my Making Shift Happen colleague Anne Mahler, PhD for her help in creating this article series. Thanks also to you, the reader for tuning in. See you for our next instalment when we take a closer look at the eleventh leadershift to help you become a more intentional leader!