Empowering Employees

[tconnor]

Management Tips #161
Empowering Employees

During the past 25 years I have worked with a variety of organizations which display any number of management styles. These varying styles contribute greatly to the corporate culture as well as the productivity of individuals and departments. It has become clear to me that empowering employees, departments and any group of employees improves performance and increases organizational effectiveness. It can also create a great deal of stress and havoc if management does not totally buy into this philosophy.

What is empowerment? It is not a fad, although it seems to have gained in popularity the past several years. Empowerment can be defined with a variety of management approaches. Rather than give you a narrative I though I would share a list. I find that lists help people better identify strengths as well as weaknesses more easily.

Empowered organizations:

1. Give authority with responsibility.
2. Communicate and reinforce consistent corporate direction clearly to all employees.
3. Have clear and flexible goals and focus on its strengths and not its weaknesses.
4. Focus and rewards not on methods or activities but results.
5. Set goals and strategic plans with a combination of top-down and bottom-up feedback.
6. Listens to all employees equally.
7. Create a safe environment where employees can feed up bad news without the fear of criticism, termination or being perceived as a poor team player.
8. Get lots of suggestions/recommendations/creative ideas from employees.
9. Delegate results not tasks.
10. Does not punish mistakes, failures or risk taking but uses them as a tool for learning and improving.
11. Do not micromanage employees actions and decisions.
12. Solicits bottom-up feedback prior to making major decisions.
13. Encourages ownership in policies, goals, vision, direction and purpose.

One of best ways to determine how empowered your employees are is to observe their behavior and attitudes. Do they behave the same:

• When their manager is out of town vs. in town.
• When they are alone vs. part of a team.
• When they are being observed or left up to their own devices.
• When it is near their review time or after a review.
• When they are a new employee vs. a seasoned veteran.
• When they are in a support role or a management one.

Or, why not ask yourself:

Are you losing good employees?
Is it difficult to attract strong employees?
Are you dealing with many of the same challenges you did last year? Two years ago?
Are you losing customers or market share?
Is customer dissatisfaction increasing?
Is your growth stagnant?
Are your competitors growing faster than you are?

If your employees never make mistakes, you may not have an empowered environment. If your employees never take risks or communicate reality be advised – you may have a heavy top-down 50-s and 60’s management style. And, if you do you could be in serious trouble. The world may be passing you by and you don’t even know it.