There are, unsurprisingly, a number of peculiarly irrelevant things described as essential leadership functions. Sadly, due to the currency accorded some of these, we will be compelled to address a few of them in the coming days as part of our general discussion of the topic.
Others, though – even though they, too, are oft-cited features of true leadership – hardly warrant a mention. My favorite among these is the notion that leaders make business fun. Examples cited are usually painfully strained – this one wore a wig one day, another dressed in a funny costume on Halloween, others make people play fun, engaging games at work.
Most of these are too trivial to mention (although, as noted, we will find ourselves forced by events to deal with some of them).
But the idea that leaders empower their staffs is not in this group.
One might think it is because, after all, the idea of empowering employees is a hoary concept, even preceding the emergence of the modern leadership movement. It was only later adopted by it due to a sort of democratic backlash against the promotion by this group of the concentration of ability and power in the persons of its idealized transcendent leaders.
So now it is widely trumpeted as the very core of leadership. Empowering employees. As obvious as it sounds to our ears, today, it has long been far from the standard view, and for all the hype about it today, it still remains far from standard practice.
So, it is worth talking about. Is it a leadership function? (clue: remember that it preceded the notion of individual leadership as propounded by the modern leadership movement in recent decades) Is it a management function? (same clue)
What does it do to or for an organization? Where does it come from – who is responsible for unleashing and cultivating it?
No clues for those last two; you’ll have to stop in tomorrow when we’ll apply those questions to the concept. Please do visit – and bring your opinions!
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Today’s tip: Speaking of empowering employees, it can be a mixed bag (just like empowering managers can be!). But there is advantage even in that: please see this piece by Rick Wartzman in Business Week about Peter Drucker‘s view on how to deal with mistakes.
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Technorati Tags: leadership, leader, business, empower, ability, power, employee, management, organization, manager, Rick Wartzman, Business Week
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2 Comments
During my years in HR management, I’ve heard a lot of promotion around ‘employee empowerment.’ Do we empower others or do we disempower them? What does power look like in an organization? What’s leadership’s attachment to their own power?
Managers can cultivate an individual’s inner power, but the person owns their own power.
I will definitely keep my eye on your further comments on this subject. Thanks
Pat
Hello Pat,
I agree completely with your observation that managers can cultivate the power of individuals, but not co-opt it. The question of power and “empowerment” do tend to collide often, and the winner is generally the former.
I hope you enjoyed the follow-on posts. Thanks for your visit, and also for your writing at your own excellent site!
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[...] idea predates the modern leadership movement’s cooption of it, as we noted yesterday. But the effort to identify it as a leadership function has only clouded its real organizational [...]
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