At its core, empowerment is about giving employees control over how they carry out their roles.

• It's not uncommon for businesses to require employees to complete processes that have been developed exclusively by their managers. When that’s the culture, that is not an environment of empowerment.
• When companies empower employees, there’s suddenly a fresh voice in refining systems and optimizing outcomes, and the focus of management moves from overseeing tasks to defining goals and staying focused on results.

In the course of a busines shifting to a more employee-empowered structure, communication is critical, including leaders sharing with employees ample information about the goals they are pursuing, as well as expecting that employees will share more feedback and solicit more advice.

This requires a higher level of transparency from leaders than they might be accustomed to, but it will help give them additional awareness of how projects are proceeding.