Equip and Enable are two leadership terms that seem to get tossed around interchangeably. In my experience, they’re not interchangeable. They are two concurrent yet distinctive phases of leadership development that must happen hand in hand.

Equipping deals primarily with resourcing. This includes connecting the people you are leading with the right relationships, information, and training opportunities to be successful. It also involves giving them adequate funds, supplies, and working conditions to get their jobs done.

Enabling has more to do with empowering. It is a process instilling confidence in those you lead by giving them authority to make decisions, and leeway to make mistakes. Enabling means building into, calling out, and backing up those you lead.

I’m sure this isn’t a perfect comparison/analysis, but it helped me in thinking through some leadership issues today, so I thought I’d take 10 minutes and share it with you in a post.