EMPOWERMENT: What It Is and What It Is Not

We hear the word empowerment being used, thrown back and forth among people and yet there seem to be numerous conceptions about what empowerment actually is. The best way to define empowerment is to consider it as part of a process or an evolution - an evolution that goes on whenever you have two or more people in a relationship, personally or professionally.

There are two aspects of empowerment we must address to understand the concept fully. The first is personal empowerment, i.e., that which individuals are responsible for doing for themselves in order to feel empowered in their lives regardless of circumstances. The second dimension of empowerment has to do with the way in which we work with others to nurture their sense of self-esteem, autonomy and growth.

In personal empowerment, one develops the ability to change one's behavior, when appropriate, in response to new situations, and to be accountable for one's own actions and decisions in life.

In the work place, hierarchies of responsibility and power are expected to exist, and they certainly do.

Empowerment in the work place must integrate key aspects of personal empowerment, responsibility, accountability and shared risk-taking. Empowerment is not a static "event", but rather a dynamic evolutionary process wherein the manager, employee and team are all involved.

There are five distinct levels or stages of autonomy and empowerment in which a team and its manager operate.

Stage one
At stage one, the manager makes the decisions and informs the team. This may seem basic and obvious but all too often, managers operate on a pre-stage one level - they make their decisions and do not bother to inform the team.

Stage two
Here the manager asks the team for suggestions, makes the decisions based on suggestions and informs the team.

Stage three
The manager and the team discuss the situation at length, the management asks for proposals and ideas from the team (which may or may not be adopted), makes the decisions and informs the team.

Stage four
This stage continues building on this relationship, and at this point, the decisions are made cooperatively between management and the team.

Stage five
In stage five, the manager delegates decision-making to the team. The team operates completely autonomously, making crucial decisions of which they may or may not, at their discretion, inform the management.

Some people would say that the first stage should not be included, i.e., the manager is simply informing people of his decision. But actual autonomy and empowerment have nothing to do with being in the fourth or fifth stages. In fact, the stage a manager operates in terms of consulting his or her team, is not nearly as important as communicating to the team at which stage they will be working with regards to any given situation.

Fundamentally, autonomy and empowerment in the work place are driven by communication between the manager and the team so as to determine the optimal stage in which they should operate.

The Communication Form

Remember, as form follows function, strategy usually follows a structure. In order to understand this fully, we must understand the evolution of the organization. When individuals (or groups) begin a company, they generally have an idea or a "vision" of what they want to accomplish. From that vision they formulate an initial strategy on how to go about doing the task. From that strategy, a "structure" for implementing the strategy and for meeting that vision is created. Notice the order: vision, strategy, structure. However, once the systems are in place those same systems tend to become rigid.

We become comfortable in our structure, we know our structure, we know what we have done in the past, so based on our history, we continue our strategies. Voila! Now our structure has begun to determine our strategies. Since strategies have been evolving out of this static structure for quite a while, once new structures are attempted, i.e., self-managed teams, they throw all the previous strategies, goals, etc., out of proper form.

Some people in the organization still think the "old" way - static structure, static strategy and static goals. More often than not, they are very convinced that they are right all the time. Often, the most resistant people are very comfortable. Why should they want to rock the boat or endanger their comfort zone? Then you have "the others", frequently newer employees, not as tied in to the old structure and more ready to embrace change. This creates a type of "values" conflict between these groups.

Communication Skills Training

This brings us to the need for communication skills training. Communication skills and processes training are each important for different reasons. There are certain communication training skills that must be taught to everybody in the organization, starting with management. Taking into consideration that the management sets the tone and vision for the rest of the organizational environment, employees will do what they see management doing.

These communications skills begin with listening skills. Listening skills are especially important as they underpin a new style of leadership. We can term this new style of leadership a "facilitative" style. For facilitative leadership, the manager needs to learn listening skills to know how to get good input from the group, facilitation skills to conduct meetings instead of "running meetings", how to coach and how to mediate.

The next area where communication skills training is needed is in the realm of empowerment. The manager must understand empowerment and how to set boundaries in areas of authority and responsibility as well as when to give increasing levels of empowerment to team members as the team develops.

The third area needed in communication skills training would be in terms of customer service - how to determine who the customers are, how to communicate with the customers to clearly understand their needs and expectations and how to make sure the projects they are working on will meet the needs.

Any organization going through change must stay in constant communication with all its employees. If employees feel that they are informed of changes and their impact within the organization on an ongoing basis, there is a greater likelihood that they will see themselves as part of the whole team and work together for the good of the organization.

SOURCE: http://www.speaking.com/articles_html/JoanPastor_188.html