EP 141 – Creating a Culture of Autonomy: The Benefits of Empowerment.
When creating a culture of autonomy and empowerment, you’ll find that empowered people are more likely to make good decisions and create better scenarios.
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Do you want to gain more autonomy? Well, as Bob Marley said, ‘You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
Granting our employees more autonomy fosters a sense of ownership and expands their capabilities. They become more likely to act freely to benefit others, tackle a wider range of tasks, and take initiative in expanding their roles. However, striking the right balance between freedom and control presents challenges. How much guidance to offer and where to set boundaries are fundamental considerations.
My experience with some companies seeking to improve employee empowerment exemplifies this. Highly capable and effective senior leaders, managing multi-million-dollar budgets, still required senior management approval for business trips exceeding a certain duration, even for tasks like booking flights or hotels under a specific amount, say $200. This micromanagement contradicted the message of empowerment, leading to low engagement scores, especially among these crucial senior leaders. Less than half the executives felt trusted to perform their jobs independently due to such examples. This disconnect between the company’s call for autonomy and its strict controls fostered disrespect and undermined trust. True empowerment, from the empowered teams’ perspective, hinges on respect, freedom of choice within established boundaries, and consistent application of these principles.
Effective leadership involves setting clear objectives, checking in regularly, and providing guidance to support performance, but it doesn’t mean micromanaging every step. Countless employee engagement surveys and research consistently demonstrate that people perform better and feel more engaged when they’re free to take decisions in other words they are not micromanaged. This leadership style, is based in coaching and teaching rather than simply showing and doing, this fosters autonomy and discourages micromanagement. While the impulse to jump in and take over might arise when people makes a mistake after being empowered, resisting micromanagement at all levels is decisive.
Effective coaching creates a framework with reasonable boundaries, allowing people to flourish without feeling restrained. The biggest challenge with coaching lies in knowing when to step back and avoid overstepping. When empowering individuals, it’s essential to equip them with a clear understanding of their role and key priorities. However, it’s equally important to provide them with the freedom to exercise their creativity and develop problem-solving skills.
For true empowerment to develop, our employees, associates, teams, and the entire organization must feel psychologically safe. This translates to feeling included, able to learn and contribute freely, and comfortable challenging the status quo. Ultimately, it’s the behavior of managers and leaders that brings this to life. Only by creating psychologically safe environments where people feel open to express themselves without fear of failure can empowerment flourish.
Can you imagine a team where everyone feels empowered to contribute their best? Well, this isn’t a magic trick; it’s about creating a space where people feel included and heard. As leaders, if we constantly swoop in with solutions or run meetings like a monologue of a dictator, guess what? We end up with a passive team waiting for instructions. But it’s up to you to flip the script! Run meetings where everyone can share ideas, have healthy debates, and even throw in a joke or two. Humor helps a lot. When everyone feels like they have a stake in the game, you’ll see more ownership, involvement, and creative solutions come to life. It’s about conversations, not declarations. There an empowered team flourish.
Encouraging team autonomy might attract criticism from above. Our role, however, is to champion our team, even when it takes courage. It’s tempting to assume everyone thrives on the same level of autonomy we do, but that’s rarely the case. The key is to actively engage with your team. Ask how they prefer to proceed and incorporate their feedback. Seek ways to empower them, not just give them tasks. This fosters a culture where leaders and teams collaborate for optimal performance, rather than constant checks and balances.
If we truly stand by our team’s ability and believe empowerment delivers results, we must shield them from undue organizational pressure. When they feel protected, they’ll confidently leverage their authority and initiative. A good leadership motto: take less than your fair share of credit and more than your fair share of the blame.
Here’s a concrete example: imagine a customer service center where advisors lack autonomy and constantly escalate issues to supervisors. This can make them feel incompetent, leading to a frustrating experience for customers. However, if we empower advisors to handle problems from start to finish, they take ownership of the customer’s concerns and gain a deeper understanding. The result? Better customer service and a more fulfilling role for the employees. Empowered to solve customer problems, our teams may even innovate and contribute to other areas of the business, like developing new solutions to boost customer satisfaction.
While empowering employees might feel like a shift at first, the long-term benefits for the company are significant and far-reaching. Consider the example of companies like KLM or Vodafone that outsourced customer service entirely to automated systems, taking away the empowerment of employees. These impersonal interactions often leave their customers dissatisfied, frustrated, and even seeking legal alternatives to get satisfaction for their demands. That is not a good example of empowerment or quality of service.
Remember, When creating a culture of autonomy and empowerment, remember that empowered people will likely make good decisions, create better scenarios, and might resolve issues differently from what we usually do. Expect and accept this. Focus less on how you would have done things differently and more on how the overall culture of empowerment positively impacts the business
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell,