Mike 
Do you hold a leadership position? Do you want to “empower” your staff? My previous blog described the problems that can arise from different understandings of what “empowered” means. I used the analogy of four different kinds of vehicles: a car at an amusement park, a go-kart, an automobile that has GPS tracking and a speed regulator, and a four-wheel car equipped for off-roading. The drivers of all four vehicles are “empowered” – but in dramatically varying degrees.
If you are a leader, these concepts have three important implications for you:
- Be clear about what you mean. If a staff member only hears, “I’m empowering you to do this project,” then misunderstanding is virtually guaranteed (unless the staff member has worked with you for a long enough time to have been down this road several times). Discuss what you mean by “empower,” or even better, use other words. Describe your expectations and boundaries, and the kinds of updates that you want to receive.
- Don’t feel guilty if you don’t fully empower. Just like the drivers for the different kinds of vehicles, some staff members don’t have the skills, knowledge, or experience to be given full autonomy for an assignment. That doesn’t make the staff member a poor performer, and it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad boss. As a leader, you need to assess the readiness and capabilities of each staff member. Yes, you need to take some risks and allow them to fail. But giving full authority to someone who isn’t ready is unwise, just as it would be to give the car keys to a 10-year old.
- No one wants to go backwards. A child may be thrilled about driving the car at the amusement park … until he’s been behind the wheel of a go-kart. After that, the puttering pace and constraints of the amusement park will be boring. A staff member who has been given the freedom to “make things happen” will be resentful if managed tightly on a future project. This is especially true if they succeeded in the earlier work and if there is not a clear reason for the different management approach. With new staff members, the “don’t go backwards” concept is equally applicable, so it is important for the leader to learn what the person’s previous work environment was like.
