Helping Your Employees Make Wise Choices

Cathie Leimbach • June 1, 2021

Creating a culture that empowers employees to make good decisions will help their professional development, increase employee engagement, and enable your organization to reach its objectives more efficiently. 

 

Helping your employees to make wiser choices requires providing them the tools they need to make high-quality decisions and the right level of guidance and coaching.  Unfortunately, it can seem time-consuming and much easier to either do it yourself or tell your team what actions they should take.  However, since the research shows that companies that empower their employees with coaching and tools have teams that are nearly four times more likely to make a good decision and outperform industry peers financially, it is well worth the effort involved.

 

Employee decision-making is enhanced when there is a clear understanding of the company's vision, values, and priorities.  Ensure that each of your employees knows how their role and responsibilities contribute to the company's overall success.

 

Embrace reasonable mistakes as learning opportunities. All too often, employees are willing to make no decision rather than make the wrong one.  Unfortunately, that leads to employees lining up outside your door waiting to be "told" what choice is the best one. 

 

Encourage your employees to make decisions on their own. However, be available if they feel they are drifting off course. Supporting your employees to learn how to make the best possible choices means listening to empower rather than jumping in with advice. 

 

Coaching your employees to make good choices requires balancing how much input you give and guiding your employee to make the best decision. Using the following four steps lets you walk an employee through the decision-making process. Your use of reflective listening and open-ended questions will allow your employee to explore the problem with you.

 

  • What are the issues? During this step, encourage your employee to identify all of the issues that are impacting the current situation.  If things are unclear, ask clarifying questions. Before moving to the second step, take a moment to summarize what you have heard. 
  • What is the desired outcome? Starting with the end in mind helps to bring clarity to the decision-making process. It also helps your employee to focus on what might work to get results.
  • What are the options? Coach your employee to identify all of the possible options. Then, keep asking "what else" until the list is complete.
  • Match the option to the desired outcome and make a choice. In this final step, your role is to empower the employee to compare all of the options and choose which one will get results. It is helpful to list the pros and cons. For each option, consider how it will help achieve the desired outcome and the potential pitfalls.

 

There is a time investment required to effectively coach and empower your team. In the long run, however, it is well worth the effort. Your team will be better equipped to repeatedly make the best decisions possible.

 

Ready to help your employees make wiser choices? Reach out for a free 20-minute session to discuss what tools can help you empower your team.


What Changes When People Actually Feel Engaged?

By Cathie Leimbach • April 7, 2026
Most leaders don’t struggle because they don’t care. They struggle because engagement feels hard to influence. But when people are engaged, the impact is hard to ignore: 18% higher sales 23% higher profitability 70% higher wellbeing These differences come from comparing the 25% of organizations with the strongest employee engagement to those in the bottom 25% (Gallup). And the stakes are bigger than most realize— disengaged employees cost U.S. organizations nearly $2 trillion in lost productivity each year (Gallup). This isn’t about perks or programs. It’s about how people are led every day. Engaged teams are clearer on expectations. They feel supported. They know their work matters. And most importantly—those conditions don’t happen by accident. They’re created in conversations: Clarifying priorities Reinforcing what good looks like Checking for understanding Following through consistently Small leadership habits drive big business outcomes. A question to consider: Where could stronger day-to-day leadership conversations improve results in your team? 👉 Join our next 60-minute Leadership Conversation: Inspiring High Performance — Monday, April 13 th at 3:00 PM ET (this is not a webinar) It’s a small-group discussion with other leaders looking at a simple question: What’s actually driving engagement—and what’s quietly holding it back? If a shift in leadership could impact sales, profitability, and wellbeing… it’s worth exploring what that might look like in your world.

4 Leadership Behaviors That Drive Trust, Performance, and Accountability

By Cathie Leimbach • March 31, 2026
Most leaders don’t struggle because they lack knowledge. They struggle because leadership opportunities show up in daily conversations —and those moments are easy to miss. The difference between average and high-performing teams often comes down to four leadership behaviors: 1. Build Trust Through Everyday Conversations Trust is built in small moments. Listen to concerns Ask thoughtful questions Follow through Address issues quickly and respectfully 🤝 Trust grows through consistent, everyday conversations. 2. Reinforce What Good Looks Like People repeat what gets recognized. Be specific: “I appreciated how you handled that client issue quickly—that made a difference.” 🔒 Clarity + recognition = stronger performance. 3. Address Problems Early—Kindly and Clearly Avoiding issues creates bigger ones. Keep it simple: What was expected? What happened? What needs to change? 👥 Clear, timely conversations reduce drama and improve results. 4. Support People So They Can Succeed Your role is to help your team succeed. Clarify priorities Remove obstacles Provide resources Coach progress 🔍 When people have clarity and support, performance follows. The Real Lever: Conversations None of this requires new systems. It happens in everyday interactions— 1:1s, quick check-ins, and follow-ups. Better conversations → better results. Quick Reflection Which one would make the biggest difference for you right now? Build trust Reinforce performance Address problems early Support success 👉 Join our next 60-minute Leadership Conversation – Inspiring Employee Performance on Monday, April 6, at 3:00 pm ET. Not a webinar. A working session with other leaders looking at what’s actually happening on their teams—and how small shifts in daily conversations change performance fast. If you're curious what even a 10% shift in consistency could look like for your team… this is a good place to start.