[Superman]

This topic has been important to me for thirty years. It's a big part of the reason I am a labor relations guy. I see advice above that makes certain folks feel like Clint Eastwood or Charlie Bronson, but which works like a turd in the punch bowl in real life. Give 'em both barrels Rikao, and feel like a tough guy while several people outperform you because they understand humans better and don't need to fire people to feel good about their performance.

Overall, the input I would offer at this point is twofold: First, the approach you are taking Shawn, is a very good one but requires almost superhuman patience and restraint. You need to be VERY careful about reaching around, grabbing the wheel from folks and leaving footprints all over their sand box. Empowerment and independence are great things, but workers don't trust it. It takes a long time before they really start believing they are free to act. You can spoil all your hard work in a few minutes by reneging on your commitment to give them freedom to act.....by showing them that all managers are control freaks and cannot be trusted to truly delegate.

The other thing is like Chuck said, it all depends. Baldman offers VERY good advice as well. Rikao, not so much. He's the manager the rest of us like to steal workers from.