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 | |
