Giving up power and control is what empowerment is all about. In the contemporary workplace, team members want and deserve more of it, and good leaders oblige. They hold others accountable to outcomes and give away as much influence over the process and everyday decisions as the team can handle.
I have worked in several “dirty empowerment” environments (love that phrase, by the way), and you are absolutely right. It is more demoralizing than straight-up top-down workplaces.
Great question, and I love your phrasing. It was more than once, and each time it was organizational and even cultural. I carved out space for my people to operate successfully, but the forces were stacked against me.
Thanks, Jim, for taking time to respond. Those sound like the typical plot points for this kind of scene playing out. The leader you were dealing with needed some serious coaching to effect change ... it definitely wasn't going to come to them from down the organizational chart.
I have worked in several “dirty empowerment” environments (love that phrase, by the way), and you are absolutely right. It is more demoralizing than straight-up top-down workplaces.
Was it something that could be fixed? Or did it seem more tangled around the axle than a typical management issue?
Great question, and I love your phrasing. It was more than once, and each time it was organizational and even cultural. I carved out space for my people to operate successfully, but the forces were stacked against me.
Thanks, Jim, for taking time to respond. Those sound like the typical plot points for this kind of scene playing out. The leader you were dealing with needed some serious coaching to effect change ... it definitely wasn't going to come to them from down the organizational chart.