An
efficient empowerment inside organizations is one of the most frequently issue
that I´ve worked with organizations managers, as a Coach or as a Mentor. Why is
it so hard to put it in practice? Does a manager need specific skill to do it?
Does a manager need some specific team or employee to do it? Or is it a matter
of mind constrains?
This
subject is more relevant on first line managers or even on senior managers
facing fast growing or hard changes inside their companies, but generally
speaking good empowerment is one of the biggest challenge for management.
What is empowerment
But what is
empowerment? In fact it is a kind of delegation: the delegation of power. It is very easy to delegate tasks, it is more difficult to delegate
power and it is an error to delegate
responsibility (responsibility is
never to be delegated: one can delegate tasks to an employee or a colleague,
who will have some responsibility to perform that task on time and on budget,
but the main responsibility remains on the former one – that’s why I always
talk about “responsibility” and never about “guilt”: the first one is very easy
to find, the second one always “dies alone”).
The non-empowerment usual scenario
So what´s
the impact of the lack of empowerment in organizations? Think about a manager
who has new responsibilities, a larger team to manage, a new BU to lead, some
kind of a new large set of resources to deal with. In most situations he needs
to jump from his usual arena, the operational
tasks, to a new one where strategic
thinking and strategic decisions need
to be performed. He needs to be focused on the better way to sail the boat. He
needs to find the right team leaders and empower them on specific areas… But
this move is usually a difficult move! Note that the new responsibilities are
already on his shoulders… but he has no time to do this new job. Why? Because he keeps his focus on the team
operational tasks, as he did before. As a Coach I´m always listening things
like: “I do the operations tasks better
and faster that anyone in my team”, “I
don’t have time to wait until others do their stuff… they spend twice my usual
time”, “I work more than 12 hours per
day and I don’t have time to manage my team, I don’t have time to define and
implement the team strategy and I don’t have time to talk with my pears”, “I often need to ask some help and advices
from my management, even when I feel that they think that I should do it alone,
by myself”, “My team is unmotivated
and I’m losing staff”, “My team does
never improve their performance and I never see any employee development”, etc.
The snow ball effect
So it’s
easy to see the cause-effect scenario:
no empowerment means that I, as a manager, need to perform a significant set of
my team tasks and decisions; then I don´t have time to perform my management tasks
because I’m always focused on operational tasks and not on strategic ones; then
I often need to ask my management to help me on tasks that they expect me to
do; then I don´t feel comfortable about this situation; concerning my team, as
I’m doing operational tasks and taking their decisions I get inside my staff
work arena, then I don’t give them space to work and grow, and obviously they
stay unmotivated… I feel like a soccer coach who trained his team and then jumps
to the football field during the game instead of waiting outside… So I have the power! I’m doing everything and taking
all the team’s decisions! I control
everything! But I don´t have time to
define, implement and correct the strategy issues. I don’t have time to dispatch subjects! I don´t have time to unlock processes’ bottlenecks! I’m failing as a manager, I’m letting down my management expectations
about me and I´m not developing and motivating my team. Because I’m not delegating power! Because I´m not using the empowerment as a powerful management practice.
The empowerment barriers
And why does
it happen? To do empowerment you need:
- to trust you team – it’s impossible to delegate power when you don’t trust others;
- to have attitude and the skills to perform real management tasks – unless your management was wrong when took you in charge, you have them;
- to be prepared to jump to a new uncomfortable zone – ok, this is the point! Most of the time my coachees discovered that the real reason not to “leave operational stuff” is not the enjoyment of that stuff, but in fact the fear to leaving their comfort zone and embrace the uncertainty… They need to feel that growing never happens in the comfort zones, the ones they know so well, and to have the awareness that to jump to an uncomfortable zone is only possible if they face their fears. And do you know what happens? The fears disappear, because they are “what-if” thoughts, they are mind constrains, they live there and they are not real. In many situations the empowerment barrier is only a matter of mind constrains.
So work daily on team trust, delegate power to
your line managers so thy can manage their units as entrepreneurs, ask them for
accountability and use your time for your real management tasks: share the team
mission - purpose, strategy, values and vision; strengthen stakeholders’ relationships;
improve yourself as a leader; use leadership everywhere; motivate and develop
your team and, of course, follow and achieve your business goals
