This document discusses leadership and employee empowerment. It begins with an agenda covering topics like leadership styles, the leader's role in empowerment, and challenges. It then discusses empowering employees by transferring authority, sharing power, and building trust. The rationale for empowerment includes increased motivation and productivity. Leaders can empower employees by setting examples, inspiring shared visions, challenging processes, and recognizing contributions. Inhibitors include resistance to change. Effective implementation involves creating a supportive environment and assessing progress. Empowered organizations can outperform competitors. Challenges include increased risk and adjusting manager roles. Lessons on empowerment are provided from leaders like Fred Smith, Steve Jobs, and Ulysses S. Grant.
2. Agenda
Leadership
Employee Empowerment
Rationale behind empowerment
Leader’s role in empowerment
Inhibitors
Implementation
Empowerment traps
Challenges
Lessons on Empowerment from selected Leaders
3. Four Quadrants of Leadership
C D
Visionary Adaptive
High Leadership Leadership
K
N
O
W
L
E
D
G
A B
E
Low Authoritative Collaborative
Leadership Leadership
Low High
APPLICATION
4. 6
K
5
4
C D
N
O
W
L 3
E
D Increasing Empowerment
G 2
B
E
1 A
1 2 3 4 5
APPLICATION
5. Employee Empowerment
• Theory X style of leadership
* Management assumes employees are
inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can
* Believed that workers need to be supervised
• Theory Y style of leadership
* Assumes employees be ambitious and self-
motivated and exercise self-control
* Communicates openly with subordinates
* Minimizes the difference between superior-
subordinate relationships
* Creates a comfortable environment in which
subordinates can develop and use their abilities
6. Employee Empowerment
• Controlled transfer of authority to make
decisions and take action
• Process of giving front-line employees the
authority to make decisions
power-sharing, trust, team-building
• “It's not about having power over other people.
It's about empowering people to step up and
lead.” William George (Former Chairman and CEO of Medtronic)
7. Rationale behind Empowerment
• Promotes creative thinking
• Increased employee contribution
• Leads to self-motivation and a sense of
independence that is translated into greater
loyalty and extra effort for the organization
• Increased power equals lower absenteeism
and better productivity
• Employees have more satisfying work
8. Rationale behind Empowerment
(Contd..)
• An increased depth of competence among
employees
• Less conflict with administration and
managers
• Employees are more likely to agree with
changes if they participate in decision making
Better ideas, better decisions, better quality, better
productivity and therefore better competitiveness
9. Leader’s role in Empowerment
Leadership, Commitment, Facilitation
• Model the Way
Set examples for others to follow
Do what you say
Put up signposts when people are unsure of where
to go or how to get there
• Inspire a shared vision
Desire to make something happen
Get people to see exciting possibilities
• Challenge the Process
Search for Opportunities to change the status quo
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried
to succeed” - Theodore Roosevelt
10. Leader’s role in Empowerment
(Contd..)
• Enable others to Act
Foster Collaboration
Build Trust
• Encourage the Heart
Recognize Contributions
Never forget to praise
Celebrate the values and victories
• Be a facilitator
Exhibit a supportive attitude
Take quick action on recommendation
11. Inhibitors of empowerment
• Resistance from employees and unions
Skepticism and inertia to change
• Resistance from management
Insecurity
Ego
Management training
• Lack of workforce readiness
Employees is not prepared to take the responsibilities
• Organizational structure and management practices
Number of layers of management between workers and
decision-makers
Encouragement of employees to speak out against policies
and procedures that inhibit quality and productivity
12. Implementation of Empowerment
• Four broad steps
Create a supportive environment
Target and overcome inhibitors
Put vehicles in place
• Brainstorming
• Nominal Group Technique
• Quality circles
• Walking and talking (MBWA)
Assess, adjust and improve
13. Empowered Organisations Can Beat
the Competition to Success
• Results of Empowerment
Results in increased initiative, involvement, enthusiasm & innovation.
Caters to an important human need - the need for recognition and self
actualization.
Creates “mini managers” who are self directed across all levels of the
business.
• Empower and Relieve yourself
Changes the managers’ mind-set & leaves them more time for
company-wide improvements.
Leader has more time and thinking time to engage in overall visionary
strategizing
Helps organizations a better and stronger growth potential
14. Challenges
• Increased Risk
• Slow Decision making
• Mid-managers and supervisors consideration of
loss of authority
• Slow process needing patience
• Assuming employees have the skill to be
empowered
• Failing to define empowerment for middle
managers and supervisors
15. Lessons on Empowerment from
Selected Leaders
1. Fred Smith (CEO, FedEx)
• He empowers his employees by periodically survey them
about their managers.
• He monitors, measures & reinforces the concept using the
famous FedEx survey.
• This empowers employees for self-leadership.
16. Lessons on Empowerment from
Selected Leaders
2. Steve Jobs (Founder & Ex-CEO, Apple)
• He believed that employees are the real creators of value in any
organization.
• He empowered employees to innovate & solve problems.
• He said: “You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy. The best idea
must win, not the ‘best person’ with the most power or seniority.”
• This value has helped the company to produce one ground-
breaking, beautiful product after another.
17. Lessons on Empowerment from
Selected Leaders
3. Vineet Nayar (ex-CEO, HCL)
• His company’s motto, “Employee first, customer second”
• He invites employees to evaluate their bosses and their bosses’
bosses; posts his own review on the firm’s intranet for all to see.
• He believes that organization should be inverted, where the top
is accountable to the bottom, and CEO’s office should become
irrelevant.
18. Lessons on Empowerment from
Selected Leaders
4. Ulysses S. Grant (War General)
• He felt empowerment begins with knowledge.
• It is important for every employee to understand the
organization’s mission & the important role they play in
carrying it out.
• This will empower them to think for themselves, not to
act like robots & outperform competitors who don’t do it.