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Staff Empowerment
There are many techniques and ideas you can use to empower your staff, but to begin with it's important to look at the foundation of staff empowerment. You can think of these concepts as the four legs of staff empowerment. Without all of them in place, you have thought you empowered your staff, when all you did was to make it more difficult for them or to confuse them. Skills Self-Confidence Position Power Support Skills refers to whether your staff actually have the capacity, the knowledge to do what you ask them to do. I can empower my staff to make changes in TMI USA's web page, but if they don't know how to do that, everyone will be unhappy. Self-confidence refers to whether my staff believes they can do what I have asked them to do. Even if I believe they can accomplish something, if they have doubts, it will undoubtedly show up in the quality of their work. Under these circumstances, staff will also probably begin to engage in avoidance behaviors rather than do what I have assigned them to do. Position power refers to whether I have communicated to everyone (customers, the rest of the staff and other managers) that a particular person is to assume responsibility for something. And then I have to give them the authority to accomplish what I have asked them to do. Any manager will have serious problems if they step organizational hierarchies asking a particular person to do something that their position gives them no authority to accomplish. Support refers to whether I will back my staff for the decisions they have made, once I have made sure they have adequate skills, they believe they can do what they are assigned, and they have the necessary position power to get others to follow them. If I don't agree with all the decisions of my newly empowered staff, I need to be careful how I talk to that individual about my disagreement. Techniques for Empowerment. Lawrence E. Sternber wrote an article, "Empowerment: Trust vs. Control," for the Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly (February, 1992) in which he outlined ideas for empowering hotel staff. I have always thought his ideas would be valid for most organizations. 1. Ask employees at all levels what decisions they ought to have the authority to make. 2. Review any procedure that requires approval for a decision to be made. 3. Determine risks of empowering staff to make decisions without prior approval. If the risks are not great, then empower! 4. Ask yourself: "If I really trusted these people, what decisions would I let them make?" 5. Not all workers in a particular job specification should be empowered at once. Sternber talks about room attendants. Some need to have their rooms checked after cleaning. Others who are more experienced and known in the organization, not. 6. Use mistakes as an opportunity for coaching and training. Good advice! 7. Understand that there are many ways to do the same task. The way your staff chooses to do something be different than how you would do that task. It be a better way! 8. Let your first inclination be to try an idea suggested by staff, rather than to look for reasons why it can't work. If you look at your team through Sternber's ideas, you are sure to think of a variety of ways you can empower your staff. Then make sure the staff has the four legs on which to do these tasks. Please e-mail or fax us any ideas you have about improving your relationships and communicating better. Your statements don't have to be lengthy. Your contributions will be meaningful to TMI's Web page visitors. Thanks. Janelle Barlow, President TMI, USA
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