Empower Your Staff
by Arthur Cooper
Published on this site: July 18th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
If you are a manager you should be managing. You should not
be doing the jobs of your staff. You should be operating at
a level above directing the work, receiving the results, interfacing
with your boss, etc. Too many managers find themselves at
the coalface when they should be directing operations from
the surface. To avoid this you must empower your staff. Give
them the space they need to operate on their own initiative
and trust them to do a good job. The majority of people will
do a good job if given the power, the responsibility, and
the recognition.
When you delegate a responsibility make sure that you do
it fully. Don't do it in words only. Don't say to someone
you are responsible for this' and then try to control every
little step along the way. Give him the job and then let him
get on with it.
Someone who is checked and watched closely at every moment
soon learns that he is not trusted. He learns that he is not
relied on to do a good job when left to himself. Eventually
he adopts the attitude of `why bother'. Why bother to be careful
when someone else is again and again going over every little
thing that he does?
On the other hand someone who is given responsibility for
a result and is measured by it will nine times out of ten
live up fully to his new role. He will accept that he is to
be measured and judged by his results and he will appreciate
being left to decide by himself how to achieve them.
This does of course assume that he has the basic ability,
skills, and knowledge.
So start by ensuring that the staff to whom you delegate
have the tools necessary. Make sure that the skills, the materials,
the working environment, the knowledge, are all in place.
Be quite clear about what you expect from them. Make certain
that the required results, quality, and timelines are all
fully understood.
Then make it clear that you want them to act on their own
initiative. Tell them that you are there to help if they are
really stuck but that otherwise they are on their own. Give
them the authority they will need in order to deal with others,
and make sure that the others know that they have it.
Most people if given responsibility (coupled with the skills
and the knowledge) will grow into it. Most people will do
a better job when trusted than when watched and supervised
every little step of the way.
Empower your staff and everybody wins.
Arthur Cooper is a business consultant, writer and
publisher. For his mini-course 'Better Management' go to:
http://www.barrel-publishing.com/better_management.shtml
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