03.31.09
In my almost 30 years of working in the printing and packaging industry, I've been both an employee having to be managed and a manager charged with having to manage employees. As I made the transition to management, I found that the most important aspect of my role was not to just lead a team of marketing professionals, but to learn how to manage the team through empowerment, giving people the responsibility to make decisions. And to make things happen.
Knowing why I wanted to manage through empowerment was easy. Throughout my career I had managers who stifled my ability to make decisions without their input (or interference!), and others who empowered me and gave me the responsibility to make decisions. Guess which manager and scenario I preferred?
Empowering your team members to make their own decisions and take responsibility for their actions accomplishes many things. Quite simply, and most important, they will be happier and more productive team members. There is also a sense of self satisfaction for individuals when a manager trusts them to make decisions on their own. And this also leads to tasks at hand getting done in a more timely manner and, most often, done right the first time for the employer.
That said, it's not easy to manage this way. The manager has lots of responsibility in making sure that everyone on the team is set up to succeed. And it is contrary to the nature of many managers who want total control to cede any part of it to those whom they manage.
As a manager, there were many things I needed to learn and put into practice. Let's look at what needs to be done to effectively manage through empowerment.
One of the most important aspects of managing by empowerment is making certain your team members understand their roles and responsibilities. It's vitally important for success that everyone on your team understands what is expected of them. While you might think that's pretty easy, you would be amazed at how many companies, and managers, don't actually define roles and responsibilities.
This can be done in a couple different ways. First and most often at the start of a new year, you should meet collectively with your team (or individually) to define the company's goals for the year. Then define what the team's goals are in order to support the company goals. Doing this requires one other important aspect of managing sharing information. Share information on company performance, etc., with your team. Don't share information on an individual "need to know" basis. This creates silos within a team, and other team members feel left out.
Throughout the year it's also important to make sure if any goals of the company or team change, that this information is communicated to the team. And then make the required changes to roles and responsibilities within the team.
Now that you have defined roles and responsibilities, the next step is to understand how to get the most from individual team members. In order to do that, you have to understand each team member's strengths and weaknesses.
Some might think that this should come before defining roles and responsibilities. But often it's not that easy to do. Although we hire people for a particular position within a company, that team member may still be better suited to some tasks more so than others.
As a manager, it's your responsibility to identify, discuss and manage both the strengths and weaknesses of an individual. More important, you must manage that team member's strengths and work together on those areas that need improvement. You want everyone on your team to succeed not fail.
Goals for each team member now should be set. While it's vital that everyone understands company and team goals, each individual should also have a set of goals so that his or her performance can be monitored and reviewed. But don't wait until the end of the year to monitor and discuss performance concerns. As stated above, it's the manager's responsibility to work with the team member throughout the course of the year. It's an ongoing responsibility of the manager.
In essence, it is the manager's responsibility to become a mentor. Mentoring, from my perspective, is a long forgotten responsibility of an effective manager. Mentoring is most often associated with an older person taking a younger person under her wing, but when egos are checked at the door, a manager can mentor a team member of any age. And in the long run, the payoff is twofold: The team member becomes more valuable to the company as he grows, learns new skills, takes on additional responsibilities, and feels better about himself.
As a manager, it is now time to sit back and relax. Right! Actually, now comes the hard part. You've given up control. You've given complete responsibility (for the most part) to your team members to make daily decisions with respect to their roles, responsibilities and goals. Congratulations. You've empowered them!
You probably wish it were that easy. It's not. Because now, as a manager, the most important aspect of empowerment comes into play. Your need to understand that your team members can never make a wrong decision. Why? Because you have empowered and given them the responsibility to make day-to-day decisions on their own. As a manager it's important to never say, after empowering your team, that they are wrong or have made a bad decision. When adjustment or direction from you is needed, it's better to say, "I would have done that in such-and-such a different manner."
That way, poor decisions become learning experiences, not demoralizing experiences. Over the long term, the team member will become more confident in his decision making as he begins to look at things differently. And quite possibly he will understand how you, as the manager, might make a particular decision.
Not all of the responsibility lies with the manager in the empowerment method of managing a team. Team members have a responsibility too. It's their responsibility to ask questions if a scenario arises where they are completely flummoxed as to what to do. It's also their responsibility to continually inform the manager, whether it be on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, of their progress with the tasks at hand and goals toward which they are working. By keeping an open dialogue and communicating progress or delays, there will never be any surprises for the manager.
If managing a team of people was as simple as I've made it out to be, every manager would be a great one. But it is not this simple. We are all human; we have other work issues to deal with; we have faults, egos, and lives outside of work that may make it hard to become an effective manager through empowerment. Let's face it, it may not just be in the manager's human nature to want to give up control.
I've been fortunate. After many years of managing people, and never believing that I was the best I could be, I continued to learn and evolve because I had great managers above me.
So, what kind of manager are you? And can you be an even better manager than you are today? Look in the mirror and decide for yourself.
Knowing why I wanted to manage through empowerment was easy. Throughout my career I had managers who stifled my ability to make decisions without their input (or interference!), and others who empowered me and gave me the responsibility to make decisions. Guess which manager and scenario I preferred?
Why empower?
Empowering your team members to make their own decisions and take responsibility for their actions accomplishes many things. Quite simply, and most important, they will be happier and more productive team members. There is also a sense of self satisfaction for individuals when a manager trusts them to make decisions on their own. And this also leads to tasks at hand getting done in a more timely manner and, most often, done right the first time for the employer.
That said, it's not easy to manage this way. The manager has lots of responsibility in making sure that everyone on the team is set up to succeed. And it is contrary to the nature of many managers who want total control to cede any part of it to those whom they manage.
As a manager, there were many things I needed to learn and put into practice. Let's look at what needs to be done to effectively manage through empowerment.
Define roles and responsibilities
One of the most important aspects of managing by empowerment is making certain your team members understand their roles and responsibilities. It's vitally important for success that everyone on your team understands what is expected of them. While you might think that's pretty easy, you would be amazed at how many companies, and managers, don't actually define roles and responsibilities.
This can be done in a couple different ways. First and most often at the start of a new year, you should meet collectively with your team (or individually) to define the company's goals for the year. Then define what the team's goals are in order to support the company goals. Doing this requires one other important aspect of managing sharing information. Share information on company performance, etc., with your team. Don't share information on an individual "need to know" basis. This creates silos within a team, and other team members feel left out.
Throughout the year it's also important to make sure if any goals of the company or team change, that this information is communicated to the team. And then make the required changes to roles and responsibilities within the team.
Manage to strengths and develop weaknesses
Now that you have defined roles and responsibilities, the next step is to understand how to get the most from individual team members. In order to do that, you have to understand each team member's strengths and weaknesses.
Some might think that this should come before defining roles and responsibilities. But often it's not that easy to do. Although we hire people for a particular position within a company, that team member may still be better suited to some tasks more so than others.
As a manager, it's your responsibility to identify, discuss and manage both the strengths and weaknesses of an individual. More important, you must manage that team member's strengths and work together on those areas that need improvement. You want everyone on your team to succeed not fail.
Set individual goals
Goals for each team member now should be set. While it's vital that everyone understands company and team goals, each individual should also have a set of goals so that his or her performance can be monitored and reviewed. But don't wait until the end of the year to monitor and discuss performance concerns. As stated above, it's the manager's responsibility to work with the team member throughout the course of the year. It's an ongoing responsibility of the manager.
In essence, it is the manager's responsibility to become a mentor. Mentoring, from my perspective, is a long forgotten responsibility of an effective manager. Mentoring is most often associated with an older person taking a younger person under her wing, but when egos are checked at the door, a manager can mentor a team member of any age. And in the long run, the payoff is twofold: The team member becomes more valuable to the company as he grows, learns new skills, takes on additional responsibilities, and feels better about himself.
Now sit back and relax
As a manager, it is now time to sit back and relax. Right! Actually, now comes the hard part. You've given up control. You've given complete responsibility (for the most part) to your team members to make daily decisions with respect to their roles, responsibilities and goals. Congratulations. You've empowered them!
You probably wish it were that easy. It's not. Because now, as a manager, the most important aspect of empowerment comes into play. Your need to understand that your team members can never make a wrong decision. Why? Because you have empowered and given them the responsibility to make day-to-day decisions on their own. As a manager it's important to never say, after empowering your team, that they are wrong or have made a bad decision. When adjustment or direction from you is needed, it's better to say, "I would have done that in such-and-such a different manner."
That way, poor decisions become learning experiences, not demoralizing experiences. Over the long term, the team member will become more confident in his decision making as he begins to look at things differently. And quite possibly he will understand how you, as the manager, might make a particular decision.
The team member responsibility
Not all of the responsibility lies with the manager in the empowerment method of managing a team. Team members have a responsibility too. It's their responsibility to ask questions if a scenario arises where they are completely flummoxed as to what to do. It's also their responsibility to continually inform the manager, whether it be on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, of their progress with the tasks at hand and goals toward which they are working. By keeping an open dialogue and communicating progress or delays, there will never be any surprises for the manager.
If it were really only this simple
If managing a team of people was as simple as I've made it out to be, every manager would be a great one. But it is not this simple. We are all human; we have other work issues to deal with; we have faults, egos, and lives outside of work that may make it hard to become an effective manager through empowerment. Let's face it, it may not just be in the manager's human nature to want to give up control.
I've been fortunate. After many years of managing people, and never believing that I was the best I could be, I continued to learn and evolve because I had great managers above me.
So, what kind of manager are you? And can you be an even better manager than you are today? Look in the mirror and decide for yourself.