Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
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
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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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