Employee empowerment is a
strategy and philosophy that enables employees to make decisions about their
jobs. Employee empowerment helps employees own their work and take
responsibility for their results. Employee empowerment helps employees serve
customers at the level of the organization where the customer interface exists.
Empowerment is the process of
enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and
control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling
self-empowered to take control of one's own destiny.
When thinking about empowerment
in human relations terms, try to avoid thinking of it as something that one
individual does for another. This is one of the problems organizations have
experienced with the concept of empowerment. People think that someone, usually
the manager, has to bestow empowerment on the people who report to him.
Consequently, the reporting staff
members wait for the bestowing of empowerment, and the manager asks why people
won't act in empowered ways. This led to a general unhappiness, mostly
undeserved, with the concept of empowerment in many organizations. Think of
empowerment, instead, as the process of an individual enabling himself to take
action and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. Empowerment
comes from the individual.
The organization has the
responsibility to create a work environment which helps foster the ability and
desire of employees to act in empowered ways. The work organization has the
responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in
empowered ways.
PRINCIPLES OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT
Looking for real management
advice about people? Your goal is to create a work environment in which people
are empowered, productive, contributing, and happy. Don't hobble them by
limiting their tools or information. Trust them to do the right thing. Get out
of their way and watch them catch fire.
These are the ten most important
principles for managing people in a way that reinforces employee empowerment,
accomplishment, and contribution. These management actions enable both the
people who work with you and the people who report to you to soar.
Demonstrate That You Value People
Your regard for people shines
through in all of your actions and words. Your facial expression, your body
language, and your words express what you are thinking about the people who
report to you. Your goal is to demonstrate your appreciation for each person's
unique value. No matter how an employee is performing on his or her current
task, your value for the employee as a human being should never falter and
always be visible.
Share Leadership Vision
Help people feel that they are
part of something bigger than themselves and their individual job. Do this by
making sure they know and have access to the organization's overall mission,
vision, and strategic plans.
Share Goals and Direction
Share the most important goals
and direction for your group. Where possible, either make progress on goals
measurable and observable, or ascertain that you have shared your picture of a
positive outcome with the people responsible for accomplishing the results. If
you share a picture and share meaning, you have agreed upon what constitutes a
successful and acceptable deliverable. Empowered employees can then chart their
course without close supervision.
Trust People
Trust the intentions of people to
do the right thing, make the right decision, and make choices that, while maybe
not exactly what you would decide, still work. When employees receive clear
expectations from their manager, they relax and trust you. They focus their
energy on accomplishing, not on wondering, worrying, and second-guessing.
Provide Information for Decision Making
Make certain that you have given
people, or made sure that they have access to, all of the information they need
to make thoughtful decisions.
Delegate Authority and Impact Opportunities, Not Just More Work
Don't just delegate the drudge
work; delegate some of the fun stuff, too. You know, delegate the important
meetings, the committee memberships that influence product development and
decision making, and the projects that people and customers notice. The
employee will grow and develop new skills. Your plate will be less full so you
can concentrate on contribution. Your reporting staff will gratefully shine -
and so will you.
Provide Frequent Feedback
Provide frequent feedback so that
people know how they are doing. Sometimes, the purpose of feedback is reward
and recognition as well as improvement coaching. People deserve your
constructive feedback, too, so they can continue to develop their knowledge and
skills.
Solve Problems: Don't Pinpoint Problem People
When a problem occurs, ask what
is wrong with the work system that caused the people to fail, not what is wrong
with the people. Worst case response to problems? Seek to identify and punish
the guilty.
Listen to Learn and Ask Questions to Provide Guidance
Provide a space in which people
will communicate by listening to them and asking them questions. Guide by
asking questions, not by telling grown up people what to do. People generally
know the right answers if they have the opportunity to produce them. When an
employee brings you a problem to solve, ask, "what do you think you should
do to solve this problem?" Or, ask, "what action steps do you
recommend?" Employees can demonstrate what they know and grow in the
process. Eventually, you will feel comfortable telling the employee that he or
she need not ask you about similar situations. You trust their judgment.
Help Employees Feel Rewarded and Recognized for Empowered Behavior
When employees feel under-compensated,
under-titled for the responsibilities they take on, under-noticed,
under-praised, and under-appreciated, don't expect results from employee
empowerment. The basic needs of employees must feel met for employees to give
you their discretionary energy, that extra effort that people voluntarily
invest in work. For successful employee empowerment, recognition plays a
significant role.
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