EMPOWERMENT:  What It Is And What It Is Not

An article by: Joan Pastor, M.A., M.A., CSP

JPA International, Inc.

The Evolution of Empowerment and

Its Relationship to Self-Managed Teams

We hear the word empowerment being bantered around, thrown back and forth between people, and yet there seem to be numerous meanings as to just what empowerment actually is.  The best way to actually define empowerment is to consider it as part of a process or an evolution – an evolution that goes on whenever you have two or more people in a relationship, personally or professionally.

Actually there are two aspects of empowerment that we must address to fully understand the concept.  The first is personal empowerment, i.e., that which each individual is responsible for doing for himself or herself in order to feel empowered in his or her life, regardless of circumstances.  The second dimension of empowerment has to do with the way in which we work with others to nurture their sense of self-esteem, autonomy and growth.

Let’s talk briefly about each.  In personal empowerment, one develops the ability to change one’s behavior when appropriate in response to new situations and to be accountable for one’s own actions and decisions in life.  Mark Samuel, founder of Impaq Organizational Systems, describes how people demonstrate accountability for their behavior.  This takes the form of a question that people ask themselves as situations occur that they might be having a hard time accepting or adjusting to.

The question that the empowered and accountable person asks is “How did I create, promote or allow this situation to occur?”  This is an appropriate question both in terms of taking personal and professional responsibility, the first step in the process of empowerment.

In the workplace, hierarchies of responsibility and power are expected to exist and they certainly do.

One of the most common misconceptions that I see when I talk to managers about empowerment is their belief that to be empowered means letting their employees or

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“team” loose on a project, meaning that they are now “empowered” to do whatever it is that they are supposed to do.

I liken these situations to an “ANOINTING.”  It’s like the king who takes his sword and lays it on the knight errant’s shoulder and tells him he now empowered to lead the crusade, to sally forth into the realm and just “DO IT!” – whatever “it” is.

Of course, the biggest problem that occurs with giving people authority and responsibility without preparation and training is that invariably a person will make decisions based on very limited perceptions.  When they bring their decision back to the “king,” the king gets upset, shouts “HALT,” and promptly revokes the knight’s decision and often his knighthood.

All it takes is one or two times of having this done to them for people to experience bile rising in their throat whenever the work empowerment is mentioned.  The rallying cry is hardly “Long live the King!”  Actually it is more like “Off with his (or her) head!”

Empowerment in the workplace must integrate key aspects of personal empowerment, responsibility, accountability and shared risk taking.  Empowerment is not a static “event” but rather a dynamic evolutionary process in which the manager, employee and team are all involved.

The Five Stages of Autonomy and Empowerment

There are five distinct levels or stages of autonomy and empowerment that a team and its manager operate in.

In Stage One, the manager makes the decisions and informs the team.  This may seem basic and obvious but all too often managers operate on a pre-Stage One level – they make their decisions and don’t bother to inform the team.

Stage Two involves the manager asking the team for suggestions, making the decisions based on those suggestions, and informing the team.

In Stage Three, the manager and the team discuss the situation at length, management asks for proposals and input from the team (which may or may not be adopted), makes the decisions and informs the team.

Stage Four continues building on this relationship and, at this point, the decision-making is done cooperatively between management and the team.