The Power of Choosing
By Raymond Posch

Someone asked me if I really believe that companies have ever empowered their employees. This was following my newsletter article on empowered teams (in Issue 4).

"Isn't that really one of those idealistic things... something that everyone agrees is a great idea, but which no real company ever does?", he asked me. He went on to say that he had never met any managers who were willing to share their power with the people who worked for them.

I think it's very sad that empowerment is still so uncommon after so much has been said about the subject over the last ten years or more. And though it is uncommon, empowerment has happened and does happen. It's one of those things that allows those few rare companies who empower employees to stand out miles above the competition. And my friend is right, managers (especially senior managers) in the herd companies are indeed, for the most part, unwilling to share their "power".

But I have been fortunate enough to see empowered teams and the difference empowerment makes in several different situations. The first time was at a division of Galileo International which operated the Apollo travel reservation system. The division was a software start-up that was trying some things that were new and different than in the stodgy parent company.

Employees of the start-up business were not empowered generally, but there were cross-functional process improvement teams that were facilitated by one particular "change agent" within the division. On those teams, or at least on the team I was on, I saw empowerment happen and very creative and successful results come out of the team.

More recently, I have seen glimpses of it on a large cross-functional project that I am managing and on other projects at DaVita where I am employed as a project manager. What I have seen happen is a higher level of energy, creativeness, productivity, and accomplishment in projects and in certain team events than I have seen in other corporate organizations. I mentioned DaVita in the article, and I attribute the higher level of empowerment to DaVita's mission, values, and culture which comes from the leadership at the top.

So empowerment can and does happen, at least some of the time. But I would like to add that I have experienced the power of choice, or choosing, and I would like to explain how it relates to empowerment.

Sometimes we think that certain things that we desire can only be achieved by someone else giving us permission or by certain things happening, usually under the control of others, that will make what we desire possible for us. A great example is happiness. So many people think that they will finally be happy if they make X amount of money, or achieve a certain level of success, or if someone (like a spouse or a boss) changes their behavior and does the right things to make them happy.

But happiness is not accrued that way. Happiness is a choice. You will be happy when you finally choose to be happy - right now or next week, whenever you make up your mind to be happy, pretty much independent of outside circumstances. It is an inside job, as someone once said.

I've learned that freedom is also very much a choice. Choosing freedom from previous limitations is very powerful. It breaks through old beliefs that are holding us back. When I choose to be free to become the person I desire to be or to create the life I desire to live, I am saying that I will tap into hidden energies and resources that I know, deep down inside, that I have access to and through which I can produce new results in my life.

I happen to think empowerment is fundamentally a choice like happiness and freedom. You have to choose to be empowered to do whatever it is you are committing to doing or achieving - whether that is on a business project or at a personal level. When you choose to be empowered, you are deciding deep down to find a way.

Yes, the company culture may put up roadblocks. Yes, you may have to jump through hoops and ask for more approvals than you think should be necessary. But when you choose to be empowered - and to empower others - you will make a difference in your relationships, your enjoyment in work, the results you produce, and in the results of others around you.

So choose to be an empowered project manager, and find ways to empower your team.

Raymond Posch is publisher of Weekly PM Insights newsletter. See Ray's bio on our Meet the Experts page. He can be reached at ray@projectsuccesstips.com.

Filed under Project Management - General