Page 41 - How to Motivate Every Employee

Hoard your power
Give your power away

then prepare to give your power away. FLY
TEAM
L et your people be powerful. If you really want to pump them up,

Even before empowerment became a management buzzword,
smart managers were already familiar with the basic principle: when
workers feel strong, confident, and capable, they can accomplish
more. Those same managers also know that when workers feel unap-
preciated or insignificant to the overall operation, and when they lack
responsibility and authority, they tend to perform down to low man-
agement expectations. They also tend to whine and complain a lot.
That’s why the most motivating managers give their power away
over and over again. Sure it’s unconventional and many managers
resist doing this because they like holding all the power. But think
about it for a minute. You’re not there as a manager to hold the
power. That’s just a resource—a means toward an end. Your respon-
sibility as a motivating manager is to use your authority to get results
and to help your employees perform better. So if giving your power
away helps to improve performance, then by all means, that’s exact-
ly what you should be doing.
When you give your power away, you are allowing your employ-
ees to share your responsibility and authority. They find greater
motivation in their work and little by little you will free yourself from
the burden of using whips, carrots, or other extrinsic forces to try to
influence them and their behaviors. Here are some additional les-
sons to achieving that same goal:

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