Empowerment

Most companies, depending on their size, have a formal management structure with a vertical hierarchy: ie. CEO; Managing Director; Director; Head of Department; Manager; and Supervisor. While you may officially have a boss, these days companies (certainly the more progressive ones) are empowering their employees to take more control of how they work as individuals.

What is Empowerment?
To empower someone is to give one more power; more autonomy, more control over decisions that affect the job they are doing. For example, what time you start and finish work, whether you can work from home or remain in the office, how you prioritise your duties, resolving problems, how you reach your targets and most importantly, how you fulfill your objectives.


In the past, a lot of managers, irrespective of their place in the company’s hierarchy, behaved like commanders dishing out instructions which had to be obeyed by their teams and most, if not all, decisions had to be referred up the line to the Boss, who was usually a male.

As well as being a very inefficient use of time, this instructional way of working meant that the manager was the central point of contact, perceived font of all knowledge, and a very visible figure of authority and respect. Too often such concentrations of power in individuals undermined the development of many other talented employees, particularly young people and women. The result was missed opportunities and a negative impact on growth and profitability.

Nowadays, life and work has become more diverse, interesting and challenging. More women are working outside of the home; people are travelling more, thinking more independently, making choices they would not have even considered before, even eating more varied food; like sushi. Furthermore people are also working in new sectors and areas of specialisation. Clearly the world has greatly changed at a rapid rate and it continues to do so.

In the workplace, all employees, including managers at various levels of seniority now focus on fulfilling their objectives (which include pre-agreed targets) and their performance should be regularly evaluated with their line manager through frequent informal meetings and formal mid-year and end of year appraisals. Both types of meeting with their manager are also good opportunities for an employee to discuss one’s career and skills development.

It’s important for everyone to understand that the modern line manager has two key responsibilities:

1. Ensuring performance objectives are met. 
2. Developing people in their teams to help them grow professionally and see the bigger picture within the company; and not just in their own little department. 

Any manager who fails in the second area of responsibility is failing to develop their company’s most valuable resource - its people.

Of course empowerment shouldn't begin when young adults start work but rather when they are children. Parents who dictate less and instead choose to empower their children to think and behave more independently, to trust them more (even when they make mistakes) and to encourage them to take greater personal responsibility give their sons and daughters a great gift.

Growing up in an empowered, self-confident and open-minded environment inevitably produces an adult ready to meet the demands and receive the rewards of working in the 21st century.

Furthermore, such young people will have a more determined can-do approach at work, address difficulties more easily and find solutions to inevitable problems with the minimum of stress.

How can managers empower their teams more?

• Trust your team members more. Have more confidence in their abilities.
• Allow them space to use their initiative and make more decisions on their own.
• Manage from a safe distance, so they feel that they are not being constantly watched.
• Give both constructive and positive feedback. 
• Explore mistakes from the perspective of learning from them.
• Above all, encourage and guide rather than criticise and insist.

How can workers become more empowered?

• Ask your manager for more responsibility. For example, offer to attend meetings or do presentations on their behalf.
• Start to use your initiative more, while asking your manager fewer procedural questions.
• When problems arrive, try to resolve them yourself first and then tell your manager, rather than dumping a problem on him/her.
• Be more curious and look at the bigger picture in your company. Ask yourself if your efforts help the company at large or are they just self-serving.
• Empathise with your manager more and understand their responsibilities better. That way you can make their life easier. 
• When necessary manage your manager.