Step into Leadership

Empowering

As a manager you have a key role in promoting an organisational culture which empowers other managers and staff to use their skills and abilities fully, to take appropriate risks and to make decisions within their own sphere of influence.

This means encouraging and valuing leadership, expertise and insight at all levels of the workforce and among people who use the service, recognising them as co-producers. One of your main challenges may be to maintain accountability while encouraging others to take risks and show autonomy.

Empowering others involves:

• developing a clear action plan to build an organisational culture which embraces the leadership of people who use services, their carers, the community, staff and colleagues at all levels in the organisation
• working with colleagues in partner organisations to build collaborative leadership capacity and enable innovation and appropriate risk-taking across organisational boundaries
• supporting professional autonomy and leadership from staff and people using the service

Empowering Resources

• Evaluation participation. A guide and toolkit for health and social care practitioners.
• Scottish Co-production Network. The Scottish Co-production Network provides a locus for the sharing of learning and the exchange of co-production practice.
• Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland. This website is for children and young people in Scotland, their parents and the adults who work with them. Here, you can learn about your rights, make your voice heard and find out who can help you live a safe and happy life.
• Principles and standards of citizen leadership Guide outlining the principles of citizen leadership.
• Groups and teamwork Very good material that explains the links between groups, teams, project management, and leadership, and provides a lot of theoretical discussion of these. Useful for first line managers particularly.
• Managing People A number of resources for Managing People are hosted on Good Practice for leaders and managers . Topics covered include delegation, empowerment and giving and receiving feedback. Registration or an Athens username is needed – but if you work in Social Services and don’t already have one, you can request one from Social Services Knowledge Scotland (SSKS).