Empowering Your Employees to Empower Themselves

Goldsmith, M. (2010). Empowering your employees to empower themselves. Retrieved April 24, 2010 from: http://blogs.hbr.org/goldsmith/2010/04/empowering_your_employees_to_e.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29

This article is published on Harvard Business Review’s Web site and discusses ways and benefits of empowering employees. Goldsmith states that employees want to be treated as partners rather than employees and they want information to also flow upward and not just down to them. However, many managers are just not willing to give up enough of their control to allow the empowerment of their employees. He states that it is time for managers to let their employees do what they need to do to get the job done. But he also states that the manager cannot empower the employee, they have to empower themselves. The manager’s role is to encourage and support the decision-making environment and to give the employees the tools and knowledge they need to make and act upon their own decisions, which helps them reach an empowered state. The author list four things leaders should do to build an environment that encourages empowerment: 1. Give power to those who have demonstrated they can handle the responsibility. 2. Create a favorable environment in which employees are encouraged to grow their skill level. 3. Don’t second guess others’ decisions and ideas unless it’s absolutely necessary. 4. Give the employee discretion and autonomy over their task and resources. This is an important subject that managers should understand. Empowered employees are the future leaders and they not only become more satisfied employees but the company they work for can receive a lot of benefit from the empowered employee as well.