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Empowerment - The Key To Developing Your Management Skills

Written by: Martin Haworth

Article Overview: It's amazing how many managers feel that they just cannot be absent from their workplace because they are 'irreplaceable'. By empowering their employees, much more is possible...

Empowerment - The Key To Developing Your Management Skills

It must be very wearing for managers to feel that they just cannot absent themselves, when they are missing people in place who can do a great job in their absence.

Empowerment - The Holy Grail Of Management

You see, most managers come from the 'shop-floor' and find it difficult to let go of that role.

They feel that if they don't keep on with the 'doing' they will be falling down on their job somehow - or maybe that their people will regard them as slacking in some way!

Working this way means they're a decision-maker and this undermines the value of each of their employees contributing fully.

Without Empowerment Employees Will Do Less

If employees don't develop the understanding that they are empowered to do what they can with the freedom that provides, they will always pass the monkey back to the manager.

That way they can get off making a decision and risk less.

By having this sort of relationship with employees where they know the manager takes all the key steps, they will do only what they are told, which is a big burden on the manager

Managers Bring This On Themselves

It's easy for a manager to let this happen.

They need to know that they will be far better in their own job when they give their people the ability to decide for themselves the actions to take.

Particularly for customer-facing employees, the ability to act fast and delight customers needs to be a given in any business.

Customers Love Employee Empowerment!

No customer likes to be told that 'the manager will be with you in a minute'. Often they will treat this as a 'put-off' designed to hold off a decision in their favor.

Or worse, it's a way of passing the blame for the issue in question onto a manager, both by the employee and then the customer.

When a manager finds themself in this situation, he faces an irate customer and an employee who expects them to find in their favor, not the customers.

Strong Teams Make Managers Great

A manager cannot do it all - their performance depends on how they get the best from their team.

By giving employees the capacity to act on the manager's behalf they will benefit incredibly with that level of trust.

Having the knowledge that whatever happens, they will be fully backed up frees them to be creative and happy with their new responsibilities.

Any manager with that sort of team ethic will benefit hugely from the freedom that comes as a result.

Empowerment Is Good For All

For a manager to be brave enough to empower their people is one of the most enlightening actions they can take to remove some of the burdens that others can deliver.

Their people start to feel that they are contributing more fully and, perhaps most importantly, recognize that they can personally make a difference to the success of the organization.

It's a truly exciting step to take when a manager decides to take a route to fully empower their people.

The Difference Empowerment Makes

Any manager who develops the way they empower their people will be pleasantly fascinated at how they see individuals develop as part of the team output.

For the manager, there is a sense of freedom, closely supplemented by a knowledge that they are developing their people - a wholesome fulfilling result for all.

Related Articles
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  Empowerment - Ten Tips to Avoid Micro Management
  Changing the Way You Think Can Empower You
  Employee Empowerment
  Leadership empowerment: what is it and how do you do it?

Article Tags: absence, business customers, decision maker, delight customers, employee empowerment, freedom, holy grail, irate customer, issue in question, job, missing people, monkey, perf, relationship, risk



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