Empowering Employees for Success

Working environment that empowers employees has been shown to not only improve employee job satisfaction and loyalty, but also improve decision making by inspiring employees to engage in more critical and creative thinking. 

Why is it then so difficult to have a truly empowered working environment?

First of all, there is a misconception that empowerment simply means “giving people the power to make decisions”, rather than the concept of trusting that people already have the knowledge and abilities to make those decisions themselves. 

Secondly, empowering employees requires that company and management be committed to continuous employee development including the appropriate training and development opportunities for the employees to learn and grow.

In addition, empowerment means fostering an environment of trust and helping employees learn from successes and analyze failures. By doing so, there will be a sense of shared risk and responsibilities. Empowerment does not mean managers abdicate all responsibility and accountability for decision making. Failure to support decisions publicly and stand behind your employees when employees are blamed or punished for decisions will very quickly negate any credibility of empowerment in the eyes of the employees.

Finally, managers might be afraid of losing control of situations by allowing employees more power and autonomy. In reality, effective managers know that real power comes only through empowering those around you, specifically those that work for you. 

Empowerment does not apply in all situations. In a recent engagement I had with a McKinsey consultant, he summerised that successful empowerment required the following conditions: clarity of intent, capability, accountability, and boundary conditions. 

In summary, empowerment is not simply a buzzword. It is all about trust, time, communication and recognizing the potential of employees. By doing so, empowerment will increase the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. 

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