Is your leadership team authoritarian?

When employees perceive leadership as authoritarian—where decisions are dictated without discussion—it stifles engagement, creativity, and accountability. Employees who feel unheard are less likely to take initiative, provide input, or commit fully to company goals. Over time, this leads to lower morale and higher turnover.

Here’s three habits companies can adopt to create an increased sense of autonomy in the workplace:

1. Ask Me Anything” (AMA) Sessions.?Hold regular “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) sessions, where employees can submit and ask questions directly to leadership. These sessions can be live sessions (virtual or in-person) or they can be set up as asynchronous text threads. To be effective, AMA sessions need to start with a clear topic being discussed (for example - changes to the company bonus scheme) and a clear time window for when the host is present to answer questions. It's important for leadership to address questions candidly in terms of what has already been decided, what is not yet decided, what leadership is seeking input on, and what is not yet known. It's also important to rotate leadership participants, record the session for those that were not able to attend, and share key takeaways as well as actions to ensure accountability and follow-through by leadership. Companies like Zappos and HubSpot hold open AMA sessions to build trust and reinforce their culture of transparency.

2. Give pre-approval with accountability. Shift from requiring approval to expecting accountability, and shift from policies to guidelines. Employees don’t need a green light for every decision, but they must be prepared to justify their choices to their manager and peers. For decisions with a small impact, like travel expense claims, give employees pre-approval to make these decisions, as long as they are prepared to justify their choices - which you can do by making all expense claims transparent to all staff. For example, Netflix eliminated detailed travel and expense policies, allowing employees to spend company money like it’s their own as long as they “act in the best interest of the company”, and knowing that everyone’s expense claim is visible to all. You can give pre-approval not just to expense claims, but other low-impact decisions such as buying work-related software, hiring short-term contractors, booking trainings or conferences, and offering customer discounts or refunds, all within the limits set by the guidelines.

The benefits of pre-approval are multiple: firstly, it reduces bottlenecks and frustration—employees no longer waste time waiting for unnecessary approvals, allowing them to act quickly on small but important decisions. Second, it fosters a culture of trust and responsibility—when employees are given pre-approval within set guidelines, they feel valued and respected as professionals capable of making good choices. Third, it helps employees develop better judgment and decision-making skills—since they must justify their choices to their peers and managers, employees learn to evaluate decisions carefully, balancing cost, impact, and business objectives. It’s a win-win for both employees and the business. For more on pre-approval read Henry Stewart’s Happiness Manifesto

3. Run Skip-Level Meetings.?Skip-level meetings are a great way for leaders to hear directly from employees. These are meetings with the people who work for your direct reports, without your direct reports in the room, where you ask what they could do or stop doing to be better bosses, and what you as management can do to improve how the company runs.?Skip-level meetings can go sideways fast if you’re not careful. Be clear that these meetings are not about going around managers. They’re about helping managers get better and making sure employees feel heard. Start by asking open-ended questions like: What is your manager doing well? What could they do better? What is working well? What challenges are you facing? How can leadership support you better? Approach these meetings with curiosity, not defensiveness. Let employees do most of the talking, and resist the urge to justify decisions on the spot. Keep the conversation focused on solutions, not complaints. Share the feedback with managers anonymously and constructively. Offer psychological safety by projecting your notes live during the meeting so people see exactly what’s being written down. Then, share key takeaways with managers, work on improvements, and report back to employees on what’s being done. This reinforces trust and proves that leadership is actually listening. For more on skip-level meetings, read Kim Scott’s classic Radical Candor.

By implementing these three habits—AMA sessions, pre-approval with accountability, and skip-level meetings—companies can foster a culture of autonomy, and open communication. When employees feel heard, empowered, and trusted to make decisions, they are more engaged, innovative, and committed to the organization’s success. Of course, leadership must be bought in and be intentional in reinforcing these practices, ensuring they don’t just exist as one-off initiatives but become embedded into the company’s portfolio of organizational habits.