There’s a reason business expert Marcus Buckingham said, “People leave managers, not companies.”

One of the best ways to retain employees is to make sure they have excellent leaders, not just bosses/managers. So, what makes a good leader?

How to be a Supportive, Empowering Leader

The best leaders empower their employees instead of micromanaging them. In essence, good leaders are willing to yield some of their power to their employees.

When you yield occasionally to your employees, you empower them to think for themselves, to be more creative, more enthusiastic and probably more productive. You send a message to your employees that you trust them and want to give them more responsibility.

Sometimes leaders have difficulty letting go of control because they want tasks to be done perfectly. But which is more important: a perfectly done task or an engaged employee who's motivated to stay, grow and constantly improve?

To help you figure out how to be a supportive and empowering leader, try any of the following tips. Empowered employees will have great ideas or perspectives on tasks you may not have asked them to perform; they will put their own signatures on excellence - they may even take your breath away!

1. Trust your employees to come up with the answers. Even if you would have done a task another way, consider the approaches they create and support them all the way.
   
   
2. Manage your reactions when you yield, and they crash. Powering down and yielding are sometimes risky, and failures will happen. Instead of punishing, collaborate with your empowered employees to learn from their mistakes. Focus on what they can do differently next time around, rather than using the rearview-mirror approach of what they should have done.
   
   
3. Serve your employees. Be a resource to them. Yielding doesn’t mean you take the next exit. Empowerment spells disaster in too many cases where the leader tosses decisions and workloads at his employees and then moves on to bigger things. The “no answers” approach works only if you're willing to brainstorm with your employees when they're stumped and to give them guidance and feedback along the way.
   
   
4. See them as colleagues, not subordinates. Show it by occasionally doing work that may seem “beneath you.” Working side by side with your employees will strengthen your relationships and increase their respect for you.
   
   
5. Listen to and use their ideas. Author John Izzo’s research suggests that people want a seat at the table. Employees tend to withhold their ideas and take less initiative to make improvements when decisions are made without their input.
   
   
6. Stop micromanaging. Let go. Stop looking over your employees’ shoulders. Ask them what level of inspection, critique or control they want you to use as you help them. Negotiate ways to get quality work done while letting them do it their way.
   
   
7. Give the spotlight away. This may be the toughest of all. As the hero, you may have received applause from your employees, and they may have credited you with the team’s success. Powering down means sharing the stage and the applause with your team members. Ironically, your stock will go up with your employees as you increasingly give them room to perform (and get credit for) brilliant, creative work.

With the continuing Great Resignation headlines, it's more important than ever for employees to feel heard and appreciated. Commit to one or more of these suggestions in order to create empowered, engaged employees.