Helping colleagues to be empowered
Although the term “being empowered” has been abused by sloppy application in some organisations this should not be a barrier to making it happen in an effective manner. The main rule is to recognise that it is about creating the environment that enables all colleagues to empower themselves. Therefore, it is not about the leader empowering colleagues. It is more about the leader finding how to appropriately encourage colleagues to grow and develop their capability in ways that fit with their needs and the needs of their roles.
A leader would look to create an environment that contained at least the following components:
- Provide colleagues with opportunities to do work that is perceived to be meaningful and fulfilling for them.
- Information on what a colleague was expected to achieve and how performance would be reviewed.
- Describe how the colleague’s outputs fits in with the overall plan and the need to work collaboratively with other colleagues.
- Describe and agree on the resources the colleague would need to be successful.
- Agree the basis and form that feedback will be handled including how feedback on the leaders’ performance would be arranged.
- List the opportunities a colleague would have for developing capability.
- Describe the opportunities that could exist to take on more responsible/demanding assignment.
- Encourage the sharing of information and supporting other colleagues when needed as well as how the colleague can obtain information and support if needed.
The goal is to create a dynamic environment that is achievement focused by encouraging colleagues to work as a team rather than as an individual. This would result in rewards systems being based on the team result with possibly a small element given for exceptional individual contribution. Giving colleagues the opportunity to grow and develop together can provide the basis for exceptional achievement. It gives opportunity to colleagues to do their best whilst knowing the when needed they will support other colleagues or receive support from them.
Get rid of what restricts achievement
The more we can trust colleagues to take full responsibility and accountability for delivering the desired outputs that will really delight customers the less need there will be for all the HR and other organisational systems and paperwork. It does not make sense to keep using systems and process that fail to add value to the organisation or to its people. All that happens is a series of activities that are time consuming and de-motivating. The time is ripe now to move to a truly enabling way of working that actually values and respects everyone involved.
Often MDs think individual rewards are essential in recognising performance as well as avoiding paying more to people who under-perform. It has proven to be a fact that poor performance is seldom effectively dealt with due to inadequate systems and commitment. The more the accountability is with teams of effective colleagues the more likely they are to help each other achieve. If someone demonstrates an unwillingness to learn and improve then they would be removed from the team and the organisation if nothing suitable for their capability was available. One of the strongest motivators is to belong to a successful team and to be appreciated for the contribution made.
What stops senior management making changes
A whole industry of control and procedures based on HR initiated processes such as job descriptions, position descriptions, job evaluation, job grading, performance reviews, reward systems are great ways of retaining the status quo. The same applies to other business systems such as the budgeting process, strategy and planning, key performance indicators (KPI) which usually involve lots of management meetings. Many of the above systems have become rituals that are frequently considered a chore and meaningless to many of those involved at middle and junior management. The reason they exist and are still used even when many know that they are ineffective is that they have become woven into the fabric of organisations.
The weight of responsibility and time consumed attending to completing and following the procedures is so demanding that even to think about doing things differently is perceived to be too difficult to even consider. Yet the answer is quite simple when the focus changes from controlling colleagues to one of finding ways to help them empower themselves. Instead of using tools that have been proved to be ineffective such as the HR procedures listed above, encourage colleagues to generate new tools that are meaningful to them. Most of the people I work with in organisations are more than capable of designing a one or two page outline of what they are expected to achieve in their role and how this fits with other colleagues. This simple document then would be used to get immediate feedback on performance and achievement from those who receive a service or product from the colleague. What I suggest is not difficult to achieve once trust is placed in the capability of each and every colleagues. It also requires senior managers to see their role as enablers who are continually seeking ways to encourage colleagues to be empowered. Thus the focus moves from command/control to empower/self-manage.
Finding Solutions
It is a fact in today’s fast moving world that no one person has all the answers and therefore it makes sense to connect with other colleagues who each have a part of the answer. By involving a number of colleagues in a solution seeking process the probability is very high that a number of potentially effective solutions will emerge to deal with the issues being encountered. In addition to the satisfaction of being involved and in generating solutions most colleagues gain a stronger commitment to make sure that the agreed option actually achieves the best outcome.
The entrenched mindset of traditional management just fails to recognise the tremendous potential and capability that exists within their “staff”. Given a genuine opportunity to be involved in solving the kinds of issues that most organisations face most colleagues would respond in a positive manner. However, the involvement must be genuine, and not a palliative exercise, as confidence needs to be built by seeing that the outputs from the exercise are actually being used by the organisation. Colleagues have sadly experienced being involved in initiatives that have started with a bang only to fizzle out when the next “flavour of the month” initiative appeared. It would not take a leader very long to have a team of highly engaged colleagues working to achieve really sound results simply because they want to!!!
Power of a traditional mindset
I was contacted recently by the MD of a fairly large organisation who had been given a copy of two of my recent blogs. He wanted to discuss the relevance of my ideas on creating true engagement in an organisation. Over a long conversation it was interesting to note that for every idea I suggested on creating a community based engagement structure he raised reasons why it would not work. There was certainly a great deal of ‘truth’ in what he said from his perspective as the points he made resonated with my experience over the past 10 years in particular.
The central issue that emerged was that many senior managers are not actually change resistant but that the hierarchical organisational structure tends to be so strongly embedded it is capable of repelling any attempt at major change. There are just so many people who are ‘comfortable’ with the current practices because they are in control of them to the point where they can derail whatever “unwanted” changes that are attempted. The derailing is certainly not done overtly but by covert action designed to undermine the change process and any of the potential benefits that it could produce. Yet the surprising thing is that the people who do this covert work are few in number but are in influential formal and informal positions. The potential damage they do impacts on the majority who often are unaware of what is going on and this is where my thinking about developing engaged communities would enable colleagues to be fully informed and able to act positively with change initiatives.
Resistance to change
Since my last blog in January I have been reflecting further on some of the interesting things that go on in both public and private organisations. It is becoming increasingly clear that a lot of leaders and others in organisations are actually crying out for change that makes their effort more meaningful. However, their cries are drowned by the ‘noise’ of many supposedly support functions who are ‘wedded’ to procedures and systems that are generally ineffective. This high level of vested interest in retaining the status quo is one of the main reasons for the poor results many organisations experience. When change is sought it is no surprise when the ‘new’ procedures and systems are similar to what existed other than to be now computerised. I have continued in this blog to add to my agenda for change that can create empowering organisational environments.
The emerging roles for ‘senior managers’
I am excited by the significant opportunities that exist for senior managers to adopt new roles as they depend less and less on the traditional “command/control” philosophy and practice. I will share my thoughts on the different roles in my next blog.
Tom
6.3.2010