August 09, 2011

One side of the coin of empowerment

If you are the person that has been empowered, that has been given the permission to make the decision and ask forgiveness, then there is no reason to not make the difference you want to make. If you are working on something you care about, you feel the action you want to take is the right thing to do, and you have the freedom to make the decision, just do it.

Something you think requires permission is really something no one would have ever thought to question before. Often, the person that empowered you has enough of their own critically important work to complete. In other words, they don't really have the time to make all of the minute decisions, which is why you were hired in the first place.

Incidentally, when you ask permission, you send up red flags. Committees are formed, meetings are scheduled, and people who have little to no stake in the project become involved. Sadly, this causes the important work to either get so diluted that it becomes powerless, or worse, it never gets done at all.

There is no excuse for not doing things the way you feel they should be done. Own it.

Please note, there is a difference between doing the right thing and just throwing stuff together out of a lack of care or respect. As the empowered, do not for even a second think that you have been given the freedom to be lazy and push something out the door to get it off your plate. The difference is obvious, and this attitude not only hurts you, but it hurts the entire team as well. This attitude diminishes trust.

If you are empowered, change the game, take ownership, and make remarkable things happen.

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