As a successful entrepreneur, you most likely have a deep passion for your business. The seed was planted in the fertile soil of your mind and watered by your sweat and tears. After months or sometimes years of careful nurturing, there comes a time when you realize that you are overwhelmed, overworked and need help. You may already have dozens of employees but somehow, the more people you hire, the more you have to do and the more alone you are with the responsibilities.
The solution is to change the fundamental way your organization is designed and managed. This isn’t a quick fix or a program that you can implement tomorrow. Instead it is a complete management restructuring designed to ensure that everyone in your company is 100% on the same page with where the company is going and how it is going to get there. Employees are empowered to work towards a common vision with discipline and accountability, communicating effectively as a team to ensure that the goals are attained.
What is employee empowerment?
Employee empowerment is giving employees the responsibility for decision-making regarding their specific tasks and a certain degree of autonomy when completing those tasks. It allows employees that are closest to the issues and problems facing the company to make decisions on how to resolve them. When employees have the ability to take ownership of their responsibilities, the result is an environment of accountability and trust with all hands pitching in together to move the company forward.
Roadblocks to employee empowerment:
Distrust
It is difficult for most entrepreneurs to acknowledge that someone else may be more capable of actually running the business and making the tough calls. How could anyone else possibly know the business, the products or the customers better than the creator? A little self-reflection here goes a long way. You may be phenomenal at what you do but do you really have every skill set needed to run your business? Are you a natural-born salesperson, strategic operations director and brilliant accountant with the patience to handle all customer complaints with warmth and generosity? No, and neither is any other entrepreneur. As soon as you realize this, the better it will be for you, your employees and your business.
Fear
Most business owners are afraid that an employee could say or do something that would put the business or its financial future in jeopardy or that employees will abuse their power. Fear in any form is a cancer in a business that stops leaders and employees from becoming effective contributors to the growth and success of the entire organization.
Micromanagement
If you want to stifle creativity and accountability, micromanagement is one of the quickest ways to do so. Micromanaging creates additional work for you and dilutes your productivity. It creates apathetic employees who are no longer engaged in the company and have stunted professional development. Quality employees with great ideas, skills and knowledge will not last in this environment and will eventually quit, leaving only employees that require constant supervision.
Communication Issues
Many business owners bemoan employees not communicating openly with them. The issues typically start at the top, however, with leaders that have not effectively communicated the company vision and goals. Without a clear understanding of how their duties, tasks and issues affect other departments and the entire company, employees may fail to communicate vital information to management or the rest of the team. This the result of an environment of fear, distrust and micromanagement.
Creating an empowered environment
By overcoming the roadblocks of distrust, fear, micromanagement and communication issues, your company culture will naturally evolve to one of empowerment and accountability where all employees are hitting goals and striving towards the company vision.
One of the first steps in this process is making sure that you have the right people in the right seats, a concept developed by company sustainability and growth author Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great. To find the right people, you have to first know who the right people are. This is determined by examining the core values of the organization and ensuring that every employee display those values. In addition to reflecting the core values, all employees need to want to do the job and have the capacity to do so.
With people that display your company’s core values in positions that they both enjoy and in which they can excel, your organization is ready to design the structure which guarantees that all employees are crystal clear on the company vision and plan, their personal objectives, the business processes and the procedure for handling issues. The entire management team should be involved in the strategic planning sessions to ensure that all key members of the organization clearly understand the bigger picture and how their individual tasks impact the success of the entire team. By engaging your employees in crafting the core structure of the company, you are developing a culture of teamwork where all employees feel that they are valued, trusted and respected to put the needs of the organization before their own. As a community of trust is created, your employees will feel empowered to work closer together with laser focus on the company and team objectives. This gives you the freedom to stop micromanaging your team and focus on what you do best as an entrepreneur and leader.
Conclusion
Greentree Business Consulting has an effective, proven system for restructuring your business. The concepts and tools may be simple but it is very hard to change your organization on your own. Having an experienced partner with proven methods oversee the process helps to clarify the vision and plan, create accountability and implement the tools correctly to achieve mastery and success. We provide a free consultation to give you more information on the tools, steps and program. There is no commitment or contracts at any time so give us a call for more information!