Teammates empowerment assessment

How to assess whether your teammates are empowered?

If they face a problem or obstacle and come to you saying, "I couldn't do this because I faced that problem," they are not empowered.

If they face a problem or obstacle and come to you saying, "I couldn't do this because I faced that problem. I did a, b, c, and still nothing," they have some signs of empowerment (first, they try to solve a problem, then escalate).

If they face a problem or obstacle and come to you saying, "I couldn't do this because I faced that problem. I tried a, b, and c - it didn't work. Can you help me with d or e?" They are empowered (they try to solve, escalate and manage up).

Managing up is a hard thing to do. Most of us have problems telling our managers what to do. But The more specific is your challenge, the more likely you know better how to solve it than your manager. You have domain knowledge and expert skills.