The Power of Empowerment

I often talk about High Reliability Organizations (HRO) and the concept of "Deference to Expertise".  Retired Navy Captain David Marquet wrote about a similar concept in his book, Turn the Ship Around!  He calls it "pushing authority to information".  

Many traditional organizations are based upon hierarchy, where the individuals at the bottom of the hierarchy have the information but not the authority to make decisions.  The solution to this mismatch between authority and information is to push information to authority, i.e. develop ways for information on the frontlines to be shared with those individuals at the top of the hierarchy who have the authority to make decisions.  Marquet argues that this is the wrong way to think about it.  The correct way, consistent with the HRO principle of  "Deference to Expertise" is to take the authority for making decisions and push it down to the individuals who have the information!  These organizations are more responsive, agile, and resilient.  More importantly, the individuals working in these organizations are more engaged and satisfied with the work they do every day.  It's the power of empowerment!

HRO leaders empower the members on their team by delegating authority and decision-making, sharing information, and asking for their input.  Allan Lee, Sara Willis, and Amy Wei Tan wrote about empowerment in a Harvard Business Review article ("When empowering employees works, and when it doesn't"), based partly on a meta-analysis they published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.  Their meta-analysis included the results of 105 studies with data from more than 30,000 employees in 30 different countries.  They found that:

1. Empowering leaders (i.e. those who "defer to expertise" or "push authority to information") are much more effective at influencing their team member's creativity and citizenship behavior (those activities that are not formally recognized or rewarded, such as helping co-workers or attending work functions that aren't mandatory).

2. Empowering leaders are more likely to be trusted by their team members (compared to leaders who don't empower their teams).

I talked about the psychological need for autonomy and its effect on motivation in two recent posts (see "Optimal Motivation" and "Junk food satisfies you for a minute...healthy food satisfies you for life!").  Autonomy and empowerment are pretty much one in the same here.  As the saying goes, "Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others."