Empowering employees in a business, empowering people in a democracy, empowering team by a leader – all are very good things. This leads to a good sense of ownership, sense of freedom and make the empowered a lot more motivated to contribute further.
However, prepare them for the empowerment. Let them know where are they right now, where will they be after empowerment and why are you doing this. They need to understand that with power comes responsibility. It implies that they are responsible to maintain this power and they may need to work towards a purpose.
Or else, the power may get misused and not get utilized for the purpose.