Empowerment: The most common, yet misunderstood word at work

One of the most utilized and least understood words in the workplace is empowerment. It’s the buzziest of all buzzwords. What does empowerment mean?

Empowerment: the authority given to someone to do something.

Every manager talks about his/her desire to empower the team. Not only do most managers fail to empower their teams, but even worse, many managers are the biggest impediment to their team’s ability to do something.

I’ve noticed that the inability to empower others is prevalent among founders (especially first-time founders). Not to make excuses for founders, but this makes sense. In the beginning, you do everything as a founder. You are the finance, marketing, business development, sales, and people departments all in one. After achieving product/market fit, you start to hire and build a team, yet the desire to remain deeply involved in (and control) all facets of the company is a real temptation.

There are three reasons why empowerment — a management philosophy that is universally accepted as “right” — is so hard for managers to get right:

1. Empowerment requires humility. In order to give someone the authority to do something, there needs to be a transfer of power. Deep down, I believe that many managers struggle with empowering others (even though in theory they understand and appreciate its importance) because there is a fear that the transfer of power will make them less significant. Empowerment requires a strong sense of self and a belief that letting go and trusting others is a sign of strength, not weakness.
2. Empowerment is built on trust. In order to give someone the authority to do something, there needs to be a level of mutual trust. At our core, we as humans live and thrive off relationships. And the key to any relationship is a foundation of trust. It’s the building block from which everything else manifests. The manager needs to trust that the employee can get the job done, and the employee needs to trust that the manager is effectively delegating work in the best interests of the company.
3. Empowerment is hard work. In order to give someone the authority to do something, there needs to be a commitment. Empowerment is not a one-time commitment. It’s a continuous process that requires extreme discipline and restraint. I’ve found that as a founder, I care deeply about everything related to my company. There’s a standard of excellence that I want us to uphold, and when that standard isn’t met, I’m tempted to jump in, roll up my sleeves, and take over. This is a natural human tendency. However, if you want to build a successful team that thrives on a culture of empowerment, you need to resist that temptation. Most novice managers don’t understand the concept of task-relevant maturity (a fundamental leadership principle), and the ability to flex their leadership style (in an overly simplistic way — being hands off vs. hands on) based on the employee and situation at hand.* Empowerment, and more holistically, leadership, is hard work. There is no silver bullet.

Hand the pen back

I’m a visual person, and the most poignant image of empowerment is “handing the pen back.” The pen is responsibility, control, accountability, power, and authority. True empowerment necessitates that managers hand the pen back to the employee so that they ultimately have the authority that was entrusted to them.

*It’s important to note that empowerment should NOT be confused with being hands off. The real skill of being an effective leader is discernment. The ability to decipher the situation and flex their leadership style based on answering the below questions:

• Has the employee done this task before?
• Does the employee have all the available information and support to make the right decision?
• How impactful is this decision to the company?
• How convicted do I feel about what we should do?