by Pam Boyd

Created on: May 10, 2009   Last Updated: June 30, 2009

I know empowerment is essential with teams, but when I give my team the opportunity to contribute, I hear crickets. This is a frequent complaint among leaders. Managers and leaders in every arena are stricken, frustrated, and paralyzed by this all-too-common inertia. The imploring cry or pathetic moan from the crowded halls of management- purgatory is; How do I transform my flat-liners into enthusiastic contributors?

If your team falls into this category; don't despair. Great leaders have successfully faced this challenge and transformed their most unlikely-to-succeed teams into powerful victory-vehicles simply by understanding and addressing the source of this inertia. Writer, Sally Wainwright, through the voice of PBS' grocery-store-manager-turned-politician Mrs. Pritchard, manages to identify these issues with amazing clarity.

During her Prime-Minister-Acceptance speech, Mrs. Pritchard hits the number one issue smack in the belly. People do not contribute because they DON'T THINK IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Why waste the effort? Nothing ever changes. We all know that feeling of frustration and resignation. All we have to do is to think about our own frustration with politics or with our own bosses to understand the malady. Who wants to make an effort when it won't do any good? Our pessimistic B-negative, cynical blood takes over and we accept status quo with a sigh, and become even more depressed.

Mrs. Pritchard knew this had to change in order to get participation in government. People have to have options and evidence that something is going to be different before they will lunge into action. She also knew that there was a raging hunger for hope and a noble core in every human heart. It might be buried under big piles of disappointment, but it nevertheless is still there. Only a leader with courage, genuine interest, and passion will have the power to bring that hope to the surface!

All great leaders are aware of this noble core within the human heart that will erupt when tapped. If you are that insightful leader, your actions and your passion will be the fire that opens the channel of enthusiastic contribution from your team.

But let's go on. Mrs. Pritchard addresses other, equally valid, reasons for the lethargic participation of the people we are leading.

The second reason involves the F word; FEAR. People know better than to speak up! They have been burned before. They know that you only want them to say what you

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