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PCCA Journal|4
th
Quarter 2011
19
bosses and have no desire to improve. This places additional
burdens on these managers. Once a manager starts truly
trusting his or her people, it is much easier to empower these
employees to make their own decisions on how to approach
their work. These managers take on a role of coach, motivat-
ing and encouraging the team from the sidelines. They train
and encourage their staff to follow the company’s strategy,
rules, and game plan, to be part of a winning organization.
Before managers decide to empower their employees with
decision-making authority, they must establish a number of
guidelines.
Managers must be committed to letting go of major deci-
sions. Without this commitment, a culture of empower-
ment simply will not happen. The aim is not to license
ill-equipped individuals to make decisions well out of their
areas of competency, but rather to continuously stretch
developing employees by increasing the magnitude of the
decisions they are asked to make.
The company should examine all of its processes and
determine where there is room for managers to let employ-
ees take part in the decision-making process. This includes
creating procedures for establishing deadlines and review-
ing any decisions made.
The organization needs to establish a clear chain of com-
mand for each area of the business, including who is
ultimately accountable for decisions made.
The company must provide adequate training and should
hold regular meetings to discuss what is working and what
needs improvement.
Managers must be willing to let employees make some
mistakes, especially in the beginning.
Once managers start empowering their employees, they
cannot go back to their old ways of making all of the deci-
sions for them. They must back off and trust their employees,
who in turn will take ownership and pride in their work.
Clearly, this process works best when established early in the
relationship of the manager and the employee. If a manager
has a long history of operating as a helicopter boss, a deci-
sion to change methodology will not be immediately trusted
by the manager’s people.
Delegate to Me
Effective delegation is one of the main ways to empower
employees. As previously mentioned, delegation is all about
trust. It allows employees to develop and use their skill sets
to their full potential. However, delegation is one of the hard-
est things for a manager to do, particularly for those new to
the management arena.
Reasons people do not delegate include:
Lack of time to train others
Fear of mistakes
Inexperience on part of the delegator
Fear of losing control/surrendering authority
“I can do it better” mentality
“I may be replaced if others do it better” mentality
Reasons people should delegate include:
Additional qualified resources yield more time for supervi-
sors on other work
Better quality of work results when management is not
spread so thin
Improved skill sets among employees as they develop and
grow
Increased bench strength as successors are identified and
trained
More ideas/new ideas are created when others are involved
Increased trust levels throughout the team
Enhanced decision-making skills of all employees
Heightened ownership and morale of team members
Delegation is certainly about entrusting your authority
to others, but it does not mean abdicating it. You remain
ultimately responsible because you are the manager, so stay
involved by letting your employees know you are willing to
answer questions when needed. Test their understanding of
the task by asking questions of them, but not to the point
that the questions become an interrogation.
Steps for delegating effectively include:
Identify the desired result, and ensure that the employees
know what you want.
Determine the guidelines and deadlines for the work, and
ensure employees have the authority to achieve them.
Provide the necessary resources to accomplish the work.
Hold employees accountable for the work assigned, and
define the consequences for not completing it.
Monitor progress, and follow-up on a predetermined basis.
Reward all successes.
Debrief the process once the employee completes the tasks.
These steps depend on clearly communicating the nature
of the work, desired results, follow-up procedures, and ac-
countability measures. Providing regular feedback at prede-
termined times is a great way to ensure that the employee
will successfully complete the delegated work. When the
manager is no longer hovering but is adhering to a reporting
schedule, the employee not only expects these meetings but
also feels encouraged by the continued support of manage-
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