1. Empowerment in the Workplace

2. Empowerment in the Workplace
Findings of a Brookings Institute report by Steve Levine and Laura D’Andrea:
Employee participation has a positive impact on business success
It is almost never negative or neutral
Stock ownership alone doesn’t motivate employees to work harder: ownership plus participation does

3. Empowerment in the Workplace
The person in the boat with you never bores a hole in it.

4. The Need for Empowerment
If any answer is yes, empowerment is needed:
Do people seem uninterested in their work?
Are absenteeism or turnover rates too high?
Do people lack loyalty and team spirit?
Is there a lack of communication among individuals and groups?
Is there a low level of pride?
Are costs too high because of waste and inefficiency?
Does the quality of product or service need improvement?

5. Empowerment in the Workplace
Empowerment is generated by efforts to improve performance
The path to success is long and filled with boulders and pebbles
It takes the strength of management to remove boulders
Employees cast away the pebbles
Everyone must work together to achieve success
The leader must unleash and channel the power of people

6. Empowerment in the Workplace
Jack Welch, General Electric, was asked “What is your job?”
Choose the right people
Allocate the right money
Transmit ideas from one group to another with the speed of light
He was a communicator and facilitator for the work of others

7. Empowerment in the Workplace
Welch’s leadership influenced GE’s performance:
He established a new mission: become the world’s most valuable company
Every GE business must be number 1 or 2 in its industry
He held leaders accountable to the four E’s of leadership:
High personal energy
The ability to energize others
The edge to make tough decisions
The ability to execute strategy

8. Empowerment in the Workplace
Welch reformed practices and culture that determined how the company worked:
Wiped out bureaucratic management
Launched the workout process:
Employees and bosses made decisions together
Taught people that they had a right to speak up
80% of answers were required immediately
Spread ideas across the company
Rewarded those with good ideas
Borrowed ideas from other companies

9. Empowerment in the Workplace
Welch’s message to GE managers:
You own these businesses; take charge of them
Think for yourself
Get headquarters out of your hair
Fight the bureaucracy: hate it, kick it, break it

10. Empowerment in the Workplace
Welch implemented Six Sigma at GE:
Set a goal of 99.99% quality production outcome
Managers set “stretch” goals that were the highest they thought achievable
Behind the scenes people practices:
Conversations were candid, not scripted
Arguments and shouting
Managers forced to think on the spot
Written follow-up to conversation

11. Principles of an Empowered Workplace
Author and educator Robert Cole identified five principles of leadership that empower people:
Implicit is that participation in the decision-making process is necessary for success
Trust in people
Invest in people
Recognize accomplishments
Decentralize decision making
View work as a cooperative effort

12. Empowered Workplace Characteristics
People experience ownership in empowered organizations:
This ensures they will do everything possible to create success
Their egos are invested in the organization, as are their abilities
The result is victory for both the person and the organization

13. Workplace Empowerment

14. The Importance of Communication
Good communication is an element of an empowered workplace:
Recognize where people prefer to get information
Identify actual versus preferred sources
Table 12-2 shows where employees actually get information and where the prefer to get it

15. The Importance of Communication
The actual and preferred rankings show that people want:
Accurate, timely, complete information
Most preferred sources:
Immediate supervisor
Small group meetings
Top executives
Policy handbook
Orientation programs
Member newsletters

16. Filling the “Need to Know” Gap
Employees have three “needs to know”:
The grand plan-purposes, values, and strategies
What is expected of them personally, and why
Feedback on performance and recognition
This must be a top-to-bottom process to be effective
Messages must be clearly communicated and understood by every individual
Leaders must be held accountable for this task

17. The High-Performance Workplace
Management authors Eric Harvey and Alexander Lucia identified 144 time-tested ways to increase leader effectiveness:
Adopt an orientation to action and results
Recognize and reward those who make improvements to products, processes, and services
Be customer-driven
Maintain a commitment to self-development
Make timely and value-driven decisions
Be flexible

18. The High-Performance Workplace
Coach others to succeed
Schedule a short meeting with each of your direct reports once every two or three weeks
Minimize obstacles
Benchmark the best
Address deficiencies
Let your conscience be your guide
Enhance the work environment
Spread the sparkle
Display resilience
Show concern for others

19. The High-Performance Workplace
Spend one-on-one time with each member of your team
Manage meetings effectively
Be sure everyone who reports to you have clarity of assignment and tools to succeed
Communicate effectively
An effective approach is to review these 20 and then pick 5 to implement
By concentrating on five, the leader can make a measurable difference in work morale and job performance

20. Leadership Challenge
Ren McPherson, past president of Dana Corporation, states:
“People are our most important asset”
The human side counts
Number one factor is the character and actions of leaders

21. Leadership Challenge
In his work on servant leadership, Robert Greenleaf proposes that:
The world can be saved as long as three institutions exist:
The private sector
The public sector
The nonprofit sector
These organizations achieve success through a spirit of community
The key in every case is caring leadership and empowerment of people