I always believed in empowerment.

But first I believed in earning the right to make the call.

This is not something that a company should easily bestow. Now, more and more people want the power to decide. well, anybody can decide for their own,( as long as they understand the consequences) but we should not easily give them the power to decide over other people.

According to studies, people who are given decision making powers with no experience, or who have not earned the experience to make such decisions end up being a jerk.

So it has nothing to do with entitlements. Making a call creates results or problems. Before it becomes serious, make sure that the people making the call first knows what he is doing, and the corresponding responsibilities associated with it.

Over the weekend, I read an article that as managers, it might be a good idea to write a manual to your members to tell them what is important to you, and how to work with you effectively:

I know I am not the easiest person to work with, but neither is any boss or company whose intent is to compete to win. You don’t win in markets or overachieve results by being wishy washy.

Here is probably mine and I’m sure you will find working with me much more pleasurable, and pleasant ( and many times rewarding too - I understand that when you dedicate yourself to the job, then it creates a responsibility for the company to make it worth your while) if you remember these:

1. Please understand first and foremost that I am unforgiving to people who don’t admit mistakes or cover up their mistakes. When you don’t own to mistakes, the possibility of you changing or improving your performance becomes nil, and that is not what we want.

2. I value good judgment calls on being ’situation aware’. For instance, Don’t come to me asking for a major decision or to decide on something important when i am on the way to a meeting, or in the washroom.

3. Don’t waste my time by asking me to do something or decide something for you when you and I both don’t have the facts. Get the facts and understand the situation first before talking to me. Just because I understand what you are doing does not mean that you are absolve of the responsibility of understanding your job yourself.

4. Believe me, I can be very patient ( that means I will not rush you when I see progress) . However, I AM easily frustrated. When you have to be reminded three times or an instruction repeated 3 times before you start taking action, you already lost a lot of goodwill.

I can be very understanding, or I may not. If you do things exactly as I told you to do, and do it the best way you can - and you don’t succeed, then I won’t take it against you. If you don’t listen, then even if you succeed, you still owe me an explanation.

This has nothing to do about whether my decisions are better than yours - this has something to do with how we can work long together as a team to create replicable success and results.

5. I understand you may not be able to do all I want you to do, but i expect you to know how to prioritize and do the important things first. If in doubt, which is the more important, ask.

6. I have no problem if you make decisions or orders if:

a.) you know the facts and have studied the facts.
b.) you take responsibility. There is no such thing as you making the call, and then blaming somebody or something if things don’t work.
c.) A decision needs to be made (that means there is still no decision and means that it is not the freedom to disobey or change a decision that is already been made).

7. We do a lot of tasks and initiatives, and the problems usually comes in when people forgets the task they were asked. When it comes down that I personally assign something, that means the task is important and I want it done asap. If it cannot be done asap, i need constant updates on what is happening through short emails. The last thing I want to do is assign something and then have to do constant follow up afterwards just to get the status. Even worse, I found out that you have not done anything on it.

8. Don’t try to impress me with how hard you work. Just impress me with the results. You have to understand that the harder you work, and the less the results, the more you will disappoint, not impress.

9. I believe in preparation, and doing last minute work will only convince me that you were not smart enough to foresee, or plan your agenda.

10. Try to be the best in your area of work. Study. Research. Think Through the process. Improve. You are not going to get a lot of respect from me if after you have beein doing a job for some years, I had to come in and find out a small change can make you do it much better or more efficiently.