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Chapter 3:

Leading and
Empowering Self
and Others
What is Leadership?
• A process of social influence to move individual and groups
toward goal achievement.
• Sharing a vision and engaging followers in that vision.
• The ability to move an organization to a higher level of
performance by transforming vision into significant actions.
• A relationship, as opposed to the property of an individual.
• An observable, learnable, set of practices and skills.
• An integration of theory, process, and practice.

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Characteristics of Effective
Leaders
• Challenge the process
• Inspire a shared vision
• Enable others to act
• Model the way
• Encourage the heart

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Self-leadership
• Happens when individuals act on their own to
achieve the organization mission, vision, purpose,
values, and goals.
• Occurs when you challenge yourself to muster the
self-direction and self-motivation you need to
perform a task or achieve a goal.
• Helps create an ideal organization.
• Results in more productive employees because
they have more control and decision-making
power.
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What is Empowerment?
• Empowerment is the process by which a
leader or manager shares his or her power
with subordinates.
• Shortened product life cycles and constant
focus on change have created a need for
the knowledge worker.
– Knowledge workers are employees who need
and use information to perform their work.

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Why is Empowerment
Important?
• Empowerment has been embraced due to its ability to
provide motivation.
• Through empowerment, organizations are able to support the
motivating potential inherent in satisfying higher-level needs.
• When workers are empowered, they are involved in decision
making, asked to suggest new services and processes, and
encouraged to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• An organization that empowers its employees may be better
suited to attract and retain its highly skilled and trained
professionals, thus maintaining its competitive edge.

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Benefits of Empowerment
• Empowerment reinforces member participation and growth,
commitment to quality, and a more open, honest
environment.
• With empowerment, people have a greater sense of
achievement, improved confidence and self-esteem, and a
sense of belonging.
• Empowerment speeds up reaction time and decision making
and provides speed and flexibility, allowing quicker response
to customers.
• Empowered employees are more likely to offer ideas,
exercise creativity, and develop more innovative processes
and products than those who are not.

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Benefits of Empowerment
• With empowerment, employees are more responsible, which
leads to greater loyalty, trust, and quality.
• Empowerment reduces operational costs by eliminating
unnecessary layers of management, staff, quality control, and
checking operations.
• Empowerment reduces turnover and aids in retention.

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Disadvantages or Costs of
Empowerment
• Empowerment results in greater costs in selection
and hiring.
• Empowerment can result in lower and inconsistent
delivery.
• Empowerment typically comes with boundaries.
• Some individuals cannot handle or do not want the
responsibility of empowerment.
• Some managers avoid empowerment due to fear
of change and the unknown.

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To Empower or Not to
Empower?
• Suggestion involvement
– The organization makes a small shift from the
production line or control model.
• Job involvement
– Employees are given greater freedom in their
job and tasks.
• High involvement
– Employees have much greater voice and
discretion over their work environment.
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Empowerment Considerations
Contingenc Production Line vs.
y Empowerment Approach
Basic business Efficient high volume vs. customized
strategy differentiated
Tie to the Transaction vs. relationship
customer
Technology Routine vs. nonroutine

Business Predictable vs. dynamic


environment
Type of people McGregor’s Theory X managers vs. Theory Y
managers
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Guidelines for Implementing and
Improving Empowerment
• Walk the talk.
• Set high performance standards.
• Empowerment must be recognized in the
structure of the organization.
• Change old habits.
• Start small.
• Build trust.

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Implementing Empowerment
• Four ingredients of empowerment must be present
in an environment for effective employee
involvement:
– Information about the organization and its performance.
– Rewards based on the organization’s performance.
– Knowledge that enables employees to understand and
contribute to organizational performance.
– Power to make decisions that influence organizational
direction and performance.

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Social Structural Characteristics that
Create an Empowering Environment
• Low role ambiguity
• Wide span of control
• Sociopolitical support
• Access to information
• Access to resources
• Participative unit climate

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Five Stages to Implementing
Empowerment
1. Investigation
2. Preparation
3. Implementation
4. Transition
5. Maturation

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Initiating Self-empowerment
• Create a vision of preferred achievements
for yourself and your group.
• Understand your need for dependency –
and let go of your need.
• Identify and manage your allies and
adversaries, and network and politic where
appropriate.
• Develop risk-taking strategies.
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Empowerment through Effective
Delegation
• Delegation involves assigning work – and
the authority and responsibility for the work
– to others.
• Healthy environments are characterized by
delegation.
• Delegation involves transferring authority,
responsibility, and accountability to others,
typically subordinates.
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Benefits of Delegation
• Delegation enables staff to handle specific tasks that are
routine.
• Transferring responsibility to staff aids in their development
and increases staff readiness for promotions.
• Delegation increases the delegatees’ level of job satisfaction.
• Delegation can lead to better decision making.
• Delegation allows for growth and development of the
manager who’s delegating.
• Delegation demonstrates a manager’s trust in his or her
employees.

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Activities Included in
Delegation
1. The assignment of responsibility.
2. The transferring of authority.
3. Establishing accountability.

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A Process for Effective
Delegation
• Create a work environment that has mutual
support, mutual trust, and clear lines of
communication.
• Decide what to delegate.
• Assess and select capable individuals.

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A Process for Effective
Delegation
• Delegate over stages, allowing employees
to work more and more on their own without
constant supervision.
• Establish controls.
• Provide help and coaching as needed and
requested.
• Provide feedback.

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