“An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.”
—Stephen Covey
When you think of empowerment what comes to mind? Do you view it as something that can be given or do you view it as an opportunity or process to enable an individual or team to become better and stronger?
“ Empower Your Employees To Greatness. ”
—Al Goodman
Empowerment does not mean relinquishing control, but simply stated it’s utilizing the strengths of individuals and teams to make decisions, implement process improvements, improve results, and perform in an autonomous way.
Empowered employees have indicated they have increased loyalty to their organization, enjoy working hard, feel they contribute to the overall success of the company, and are happy in their position.
We are all familiar with the term return on investment (ROI), but what about “return on recognition” (ROR)Ô? (Al Goodman of Albert James Associates coined this term).
RORÔ is how we as leaders can improve the performance of our team and empower them to greatness. To begin with, we need to define the behaviors we desire; Mr. Goodman has identified the following 6 areas:
- Talent Management
- Accountability
- Collaboration
- Efficiency
- Strategy
- Customer Focus
These dimensions may be replaced with some that may be more meaningful or useful to your organization but the intent is to make your staff aware of them, and the associated behaviors you view as critical for success.
The next step is for you as leader to provide feedback and encouragement for the behaviors exhibited, and to create a work environment conducive for employees to act in empowered ways. The benefit will be higher performance, an increase in results, and lower attrition. Do you want to empower your employees to greatness?