Are You Empowered?

What? There are many key elements to running a successful business. Empowerment of the people that take part in a buisness or corporation is one of most important elements. It can determine the overall success or failure of a company.As an example, Fred Smith, the chairman of Federal Express, stated "empowering people is the single most important element in managing our organization". This goes to show that many leaders value empowerment in their organizations. On the other hand some leaders and business owners do not empower the people who work for them. Unfortunately I have experienced working for a business owner who did not empower his employees.

So What? Employees that are empowered are able to identify problems and fix them without going through many levels of authorization. Empowered workplaces have seven key characteristics that allow them to function successfully. For example, since my coworkers were not empowered, they were unable to do anything on their own without asking permission from a higher authority. This decreased the productivity and efficiency of the business and caused chaos to occur at times. Work policies were also unheeded because employees were not included in the policy making. Along with that policies were constantly changing and employees were often unaware of what policies were in effect and which ones were not. This caused employees to be unable to work together well and as a result there work performance decreased significantly.

Now What? By following the principles of an empowered workplace, leaders can effectively empower others in the buisness. These principles include: trust in people, invest in people, recognize accomplishments, decentralize decision making, and view work as a cooperative effort. Also by following the principles the business will also have the seven characteristics of an empowered workplace that I have stated above. If the workplace that I was employed at followed these principles, our service, efficiency, and work environment would have improved dramatically.  It is critical for a successful business or organization to be empowered because without empowerment they will not be able to succeed.