Fear of Empowerment

In my seminars, people often mix-up delegation and empowerment. Delegation is giving your people tasks, projects to do that you don't have the time, interest, or know-how to do. Empowerment, on the other hand, is giving people the authority and responsibility to make suggestions, but also to take action on their own when no supervisor or manager is there. For both, you need training and communication. If your people are truly empowered to make a decision, they should not have to find someone above them to get permission for that decision. Many managers who are control freaks are afraid to empower people. They feel they must be in on every decision. Stop controlling and start empowering.

If you want to empower people, then take away fear, especially the fear of making mistakes. If you come down hard on people for making mistakes, they won't want to make any decisions on their own again. They will wait for you to make them all. That does not mean we accept mistakes. We make mistakes a teachable moment, a time for training and retraining. Bad judgment is discussed in detail, so the employee can handle the situation in a better manner the next time. If you treat your people right and with respect, they will bounce back and do it right the next time.