Empowering Leadership: How to Develop Empowered Followers

December 3, 2025

Empowering Leadership: How to Develop Empowered Followers

Daniel K. Mundt | 2020

Abstract

Empowering leadership might be described as the act of giving and sharing power with those they lead. Whether leading people, managing them, or serving them, organizations and their leaders are wise to empower the individuals they lead. Likewise, in the workplace today, most individuals want to contribute to the overall goal of the organization. They want to make a difference. They want to have a voice. When leaders empower their followers, it gives them a place at the table. This empowerment inspires the follower to give their best to help the organization fulfill its mission and purpose.

Although empowering leadership seems to be a recent concept, the truth is, the principles of empowerment are as old as humankind. In the garden of Eden, the Creator empowered the first humans to name the animals and have dominion over their land. God enabled Abraham to be the father of the nation and that “all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, NASB). Throughout the Bible narrative, one can see empowerment at work leading to Jesus empowering His disciples to take the Gospel to all the world (Matthew 28:18-19). Also, at the very foundation of the Church, empowerment is the theme as Christ designed the church “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service” (Ephesians 4:12).

This manuscript provides a model for empowering leadership by looking at the attributes and actions of empowering leaders. The empowering attributes are humility, trust, self-awareness, and self-empowerment. The actions of an empowering leader are collaborating, sponsoring, listening, and serving. The book closes by looking at the effect that empowering leadership has on followers. Frankly, for those followers being led by empowering leaders, they fair better in the workplace, they become better employees, better team members, and better leaders themselves. Simply put, all followers have a tendency to emulate what they see their leader practice.

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