Current-day managers revel in empowerment
WICHITA, Kan. -- "Just do what I tell you to!" "I did not hire you to
think!" "When I want your ideas I will ask for them!" "Whose fault was
this?" "How many times do I have to tell you?"
These worn-out phrases, the message of which is simply "make no
decisions," represent the opposite of empowerment. Empowerment
encourages, perhaps even requires, employees to make decisions and solve
problems.
Current-day managers revel in empowerment. Many seem to think that
empowered subordinates can turn acorns into oak trees overnight. But
actual empowering attempts often fall a mile short of expectations.
In one case, an employee was told, "Figure out what you need to do and
do it." In another case, a manager reprimanded an "empowered employee"
for authorizing a $27 expenditure to correct a problem.
Failure to communicate just how far employees can go in solving
problems is a cardinal mistake. For instance, can employees violate a
policy? Commit the department to an action? Change a strategy? Spend
money? They need to know their limits.
Managers who put sensitive information such as costs, revenues,
profits, returns, volume and budget under padlock reduce empowerment to a
weak fizzle. Just like informed managers, informed employees make better
decisions.
Will empowered employees make bad decisions? The answer is, "Most
certainly, yes!"
Ineffective managers, however, seem to use employees who make mistakes
as target practice. One bashed and beaten employee voids all other
empowerment efforts. By contrast, effective managers see mistakes as
teaching opportunities.
Empowerment does not relieve subordinates from the responsibility of
accomplishing departmental goals. The mission and goals must be served.
But truly, empowered employees have a lot of latitude in figuring out the
best way to achieve departmental results.
Management quiz
Which of the following more closely represents your philosophy toward
employee problem solving?
When a subordinate sees a problem, I want the subordinate to . . .
- A. Report the problem to me immediately.
- B. Gather background information on why the problem occurred and report the information and the problem to me.
- C. Gather information, identify the problem and recommend alternatives to me.
- D. Gather information, identify the problem, recommend several alternatives and suggest to me a course of action to take.
- E. Gather information, identify the problem, consider alternatives that do not require expenditures, take action to solve the problem and report to me at the subordinate's earliest convenience.
- F. After gathering information and identifying alternatives, take a fair and equitable action to solve the problem even if it requires
expenditures of money or exceptions to policies.
The alternatives are listed in order from "least" to "most" empowered. But most managers would consider only alternatives E and F to represent true empowerment.
Source:The Tampa Tribune - January 29, 1996 - GERALD GRAHAM of Knight-Ridder Newspapers
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