The Leadership Challenge – Enable Others to Act

I like to think of this concept with an emphasis on the word “enable” – in a good sense. Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to be an enabler. Not when enabling means giving a committee a responsibility and then ensuring that they have everything they need to succeed – no more and no less.

No more – because that would be taking away their creativity and their ability to make a project their own. But certainly no less or they may struggle, may not enjoy the project, and may not have the growth experience the individual members are seeking.

This is harder than it sounds. As we seek to collaborate in our committees, it is often a lot more work to teach a member what she needs to know so she can successfully take on a responsibility. It’s much easier to just do it ourselves. (Guilty as charged.) But teach her we must – our success and growth as a club depends on it. Our ability to succeed as a club depends on our ability to foster collaboration and strengthen each other as we accomplish our mission – improving the lives of women and girls.

By enabling others to act, we give them the gift of our trust and our confidence in their ability to succeed – both for themselves and for the club. Enable others to act – because your gift matters.