People love their feeling of freedom! No one wants to be restricted. We all enjoy and appreciate freedom of choice, direction and destiny!
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 3 and 4 say: ‘‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security …’ and ‘No one shall be held in slavery or servitude’. Although intended to determine much more fundamental rights for individuals, there is no escaping the fact that we, as people, do not like to be told what to do or where to go! We like the freedom to choose, including in our working lives!
No leader can afford for people to closely supervise others. No manager wants to be standing over someone else telling them how to work. No worker wants to be constantly watched, feeling untrusted and controlled…
Everyone not only has the need to be free to make their own way, but also to make their own success. Without this personal feeling of self-satisfaction, there is little sense of achievement through work – an incredibly important part of well-being and self-worth.
Self-direction
There is much talk of ‘self-directing teams’ in business. This is a widely misunderstood concept, which is in danger of taking self-direction to a new level. Self-direction refers to the freedom and responsibility handed over to a team in order to let it forge its own path to a pre-determined goal, agreed in advance between the team and their manager.
Self-direction does not, and has never, removed the need for a business to provide direction through leadership. Self-direction is a team’s freedom to have control over how they intend to reach their goals and make their own decisions along the way. Many people say the ability to perform freely within this structure creates the greatest opportunity to achieve personal job satisfaction.
A self-directing team should be able to complete their work on a self-initiated basis. If this is the term of reference for a self-directing team I have never set out to create anything other than this with every individual who has ever worked for me and capable and willing to perform. The success of this approach relies entirely on your original actions, when you provide the correct level of empowerment and trust in individuals, and your role is that of a governor, or overseer – retaining accountability but empowering others with the responsibility to deliver.
Freedom within the Framework
There are two important rules to follow when you lead your team in this manner. Firstly it is important to set absolute parameters, the boundaries of safety, integrity, company standards, accuracy etc. beyond which a person cannot stray. A senior manager from Asda, referred to it as creating ‘freedom within the framework’. I think that is an excellent way to describe this process, and this phrase has been one of my mantras for many years.
Secondly there is an absolute need to establish from the outset an appropriate level of communication between yourself, and those whom you have empowered. How they decide to report back to keep you up to date with progress is entirely their choice, again reflecting the responsibility you have empowered them with, but it must be wholly appropriate and comprehensive. Only in this way can you build up strong trust within the relationship, and also offer relevant support and guidance. Remember you cannot manage what you do not know about, and ultimate accountability rests with you.
Delegation is only loaning out responsibility, not absolving yourself from it!
The advantages of empowerment are many. It creates a situation where people have to think for themselves, and not rely upon your constant leadership. This helps them grow and develop as individuals. It frees up your time to focus on other matters. It helps them become reliant on others within the team to deliver the task – the team grows as mutual support and encouragement naturally occur, with co-operation within teams, between teams and throughout the company.
‘Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great’ - (Ralph Waldo Emmerson)
Empowering others needs your blessing. Those taking responsibility upon themselves need to know that you will be there to catch them if they fall. There is a risk in trusting others, but there is a greater risk in not doing so!
Sports coach Vince Lombardi said that his players must be ‘conscious of mistakes but not paralysed by the possibility of making one’
