Sunday, October 28, 2007

Empowerment Vs Delegation Vs...

A lot of times at work, we get told and tell our colleagues that we need to “empower” our folks. I was explaining to someone as to what is the difference between empowerment, delegation and abdication…

…and decided to state that thus:


The employee has

Then its,

heading for

Long term, manager does

Short term, manager does

Capability

Potential

When the work gets pushed to one level below

Yes

Yes

Empowerment

success at a “raised bar” level

New objectives, higher bar, mentoring outside of hierarchy

Allow to set objectives, make decisions, "promote" to next level (of hierarchy, complexity etc)

No

Yes

Delegation

Success

Reviews, coaching, hints on what-if scenarios, asking questions (but no answers)

set context, "gate" decisions with y/n

No

No

Abdication

Failure

Change the employee out of current role

Operate at "activity/task" level

Makes sense ?