The difficulty with the use of empowerment as a concept is that it too often becomes restricted to the area of authority, that is to say the giving of power, rather than the wider context of achievement. For that reason, I prefer to use the term enablement, because that can be more than merely power, but include all the aspects involved in improvement, achievement, skills and success.
Apart from the strategic, goal setting and leadership aspects, management is about delivering, which in turn is dependent on other staff. Good management is about developing, encouraging and increasing the skills of the staff being managed. The better staff perform, the better the manager performs. Enabling staff to give of their best involves several factors. This check list may help managers, especially those new to people management, ensure they succeed in their job by enabling their staff to succeed in theirs.
Delegate outcomes not tasks: see the earlier post on delegation. Allowing staff to work out their own way of achieving the objectives you set them – with support – increase skills, confidence and ability across the board.
Ensure people have the resources they need to do their jobs. This is not only adequate budgets and staff, but access to you and others for advice and help when needed, facilities such as office, equipment, and specialists.
Give them the authority to command the resources they are given: if they need to hire people, they must have the power to select, and to decide on terms etc (within corporate guidelines), and the power to spend their budgets.
Share your skills and knowledge: mentor, coach and support people. A good manager is not threatened by his or her staff being progressively skilled in what they themselves do.
Learn from your people: they will bring different ideas and approaches that you can use, increasing your own skills.
Review successes and failures, identify causes, strengths, weaknesses, so that you and your staff can build on success, and learn from mistakes.
Remove barriers that prevent staff achieving their objectives, because those are your objectives too. Get the extra resources, use your own power and authority to deal with obstructions or lack of cooperation from others in your organisation.
Accept accountability for what others do, as well as what you do. Accountability cannot be delegated: you will be held accountable for what is your responsibility irrespective of whether you personally do the work or it is done by others. Each level below you retains their own accountability, even if the work is delegated further down. For example, the director of a local authority social services department is accountable for how their section managers perform, and for the work of every field social worker. A Chief Constable is accountable for what every PC does.
Praise and reward more than blame. If staff are successful, thank them , and let them know you are aware of and appreciate their success. If things go wrong, find out why, and how to help them.
Develop training plans for each person, based on their existing attainments, knowledge and skills, and what they will need in the future. Ensure they can do what is expected effectively and efficiently.
Have career plans for your staff, based on what they can do, what they will be able to do, and where they want to go, and help them work towards their future.
There is a rule that every manager should understand and communicate: successes are due to the people who did the work. Failures are the fault of you the manager.
It is your responsibility to ensure your staff can deliver: you must enable them to do so.
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