It was approaching 11:00 p.m. and I hadn’t eaten much of anything since noon. I absently scooped out a small handful of crumbs from the deep bowl of tortilla chips that had been sitting for hours on the credenza in our 2001 NHL All-Star Weekend production office. We had been buried deep within the windowless bowels of the Pepsi Center in Denver since early morning; our only glimpse of the outside world peeking in was from the television permanently tuned to ESPN. It was a typically long day of rehearsals for the next night’s on-ice pregame show.
Our talented and exhausted associate producer Tanya had left the office about a half-hour before to get a little rest. Musing that I really didn’t relish another midnight run for sliders, I turned to a fellow teammate who was furiously clicking away at his keyboard. “With Tanya gone for the day, you know what would go really well right now?” I reflected as one of the arena’s catering staff cleared away the dirty bowls. “A peanut butter sandwich and a tall glass of milk.” Tanya was allergic to peanuts and we were painstakingly careful that our provisions never included any trace of the magical bean. In other circumstances, I could, and often did, eat peanut butter for dessert.
I ventured out into the darkness of the empty arena to watch our lighting director programming effects for the player introductions from his massive console. No more than 20 minutes later, I returned to the office and there, sitting on gleaming white china beside my computer was a freshly prepared peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich on hand-cut whole wheat bread accompanied by, yes, a tall, ice-cold glass of milk. I was pretty sure there weren’t many catering staff working near midnight on a rehearsal day, so it is entirely possible that the same person who quietly gathered up the dirty bowls took it upon himself to make a snack for a hungry client. It was a gesture of care and kindness that continues to impress me about the Levy Restaurants brand more than 15 years later, as much today for how an empowered staff member late one night built a lifelong relationship on behalf of their company as for the most appreciated peanut butter sandwich I have ever consumed.
Companies routinely budget many thousands of dollars to host focus groups, develop customer surveys, and analyze social media to gauge customer sentiment about their brand. All these instruments have been proven to be effective as barometers of engagement with the customer, but none have much of an effect on that interaction while it is actually taking place. If something has gone awry, these tools can provide us with valuable intelligence, but sadly, only after the fact.
Empowered front-line teammates can, however, impact the quality of the experience, and facilitate the recovery from a poor experience while the interaction is taking place in person, on the phone, or online. Properly trained, informed, and engaged, empowered teammates can help a company build stronger, more positive, and more personal customer relationships when things are going right, like my peanut butter–providing friend. These teammates can also identify new challenges and shortcomings, keep problems from “going bad to worse,” and keep management apprised of potential failures on the horizon.
Instituting and nurturing a culture of empowerment imbues and inspires our teammates with tangible, palpable manifestations of management’s trust. In turn, it confers to them the responsibility to act more independently, applying good judgment to making informed decisions that deal on-the-spot with things starting to turn wrong. Empowerment is a powerful motivator, one that instills a strong personal relationship between our teammates and company, brand, or project leadership. According to a 2017 study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 61 percent of U.S. employees surveyed ranked “trust between employees and senior management” as “very important” to overall job satisfaction; this was mentioned as often as “overall compensation.” Sadly, however, only 33 percent of those surveyed reported being “satisfied” with the level of trust they experience.
As discussed in Chapter 4, time is our most limited and precious nonrenewable resource. We can employ more teammates, but no matter how many we hire, we can’t gain more time. Senior management, however, can borrow time from empowered teammates to assume responsibility for a greater share of the routine decision making. Writing in the Houston Chronicle, freelance small business columnist and adjunct instructor at Central Maine Community College Kristen Hamlin explains: “When employees don’t have to wait for approval from a manager or supervisor, workflow doesn’t slow down or stop. Employees solve their own problems and move on to the next task.” This frees us up to do other things and solve bigger problems when they present themselves. “Empowered employees feel as if their contributions matter,” Hamlin continues. “When the company trusts them to make decisions, morale increases, and as a result, so does productivity. Empowered employees often feel as if they have a stake in the organization and their work and strive to consistently produce quality results.”
Teammates that feel a sense of ownership, “a stake in the organization,” will make better decisions on behalf of the company. Although we may have key directives for them to follow, they begin to understand that they are not there simply to follow directions. When we give them the opportunity to identify problems, errors, and other situations requiring attention, they are more likely to make the effort to either correct the problem themselves or elevate their concerns. Because they feel trusted, and trust that their leaders will make the best use of the information they provide, they will also feel the satisfaction of having contributed to the solution.
I recognize that empowering your team takes an enormous leap of faith. That’s what makes it so profoundly impactful when you do. Empowering is similar to delegating, but it is not entirely the same. You can delegate without empowering, but you can’t empower without delegating. Delegating shifts the responsibility for completing a task from one person to another person further away from the center of the web of command. By itself, it adds useful time for the person doing the delegating at the expense of time invested by the person to whom the task is given. It may, but does not have to require, any level of creativity, problem-solving skills, or judgment. Delegating confers responsibility, but not necessarily authority.
The teammates who are empowered, on the other hand, are given not only the responsibility to complete a task, but also the authority to apply the best of themselves to make decisions that ensure the best outcome. They should also have the authority, within the limits we as leaders define, to participate directly as problem solvers. This may include making decisions that are in the best general interest of the company, brand, project, or customer, even if they are not directly related to the teammates’ core responsibilities. Those decisions may result in our teammates personally acting to correct the effects of something that went wrong, referring problems to other teammates who are better qualified or more authorized to take remedial action, or simply conveying information through the web of command.
Empowerment does not confer limitless authority. Defining and communicating clear boundaries and understandable guidelines for each teammate’s individual and shared responsibilities, as well as limits to the teammate’s authority, helps empower all teammates to better understand what is expected of them and what is their accountability to the company. Communicate what teammates can do to help solve problems and encourage them to reach out when it’s time to inform management of something that needs to be addressed.
At a minimum, all Super Bowl teammates were empowered and expected to relay to their supervisor or to the hotline anything they witnessed going wrong (a leak, flood, dangerous crowding, a security breach, an injury, etc.). It was everybody’s job, at the very least, to identify problems and quickly communicate issues that were beyond the limits of their authority or their ability to solve them directly.
Establish guardrails that define clear boundaries of teammate empowerment and share expectations during formal orientations, job training sessions, and in documentation that the teammates can reference. Key messages may include:
• Your assigned job is integral to our overall success. If you are not confident that you fully understand your job, please ask your supervisor for a thorough explanation.
• If you cannot fulfill your mission for any reason, or something interferes with your ability to get your job done, you must let your supervisor know as soon as possible.
• We are all members of a team that shares this purpose— ________________________. If you see something that will keep our team from fulfilling this important purpose, and you can correct it easily and quickly without endangering your mission, please do so. If you cannot correct it, you must let your supervisor know as soon as possible. If you cannot immediately reach your supervisor, use our hotline and we will send help.
• It is important to communicate the most accurate information available to our customers. If you do not have the answer to a question, please ask a teammate or your supervisor for help, or direct the customer to someone who can better help her.
• It is all of our jobs to respond when things go wrong or look like they may go wrong. If you see something, say something immediately. Provide your supervisor only with information you know is correct and do not embellish the details.
• You should never take any action that is illegal or dishonest.
• You should always contact your supervisor before:
• Taking any action that you know violates company policy.
• Taking any action that involves spending money or committing company funds.
• Taking any action that interferes with the mission of a fellow teammate.
• Taking any action that detracts from the enjoyment of others.
• It is everyone’s job to ensure we are providing a safe environment for our customers. Never do anything that endangers your safety or the safety of others.
• We are not authorized to speak to members of the media, even “off the record.” If you are approached by reporters or camerapersons, please refer them to our media relations department.
• Treat every customer as though they are a VVIP (Very, Very Important Person). And treat your fellow teammates the same way!
This illustration is most applicable as a guide to customer-facing teammates, but most of these points are just as appropriate for sharing more broadly with all other levels of supervision and management. Our expectations of everyone on our team is that they all participate as active members of the same early-warning system and they go out of their way to help solve problems and complaints, regardless of their job.
It is often easier for us to trust the teammates over whom we have some level of management supervision, whether directly or through a third party that we have contracted. The strength and continuance of our business relationship requires them to be wholly accountable and cognizant that they will be judged on how they perform. How much do we trust our own colleagues within the organization—the teammates who we rely on, but over whom we have no direct supervisory relationship? Let’s be totally honest. We know from past experiences where the potential weak links walk about in our own hallways—the colleagues on the same or higher levels who we count on and we attempt to collaborate with, but who are difficult to manage or hold accountable. They may plan inadequately, miss important meetings, be imperfectly informed, communicate poorly, or simply not care as much as we do about the mission at hand. A failure by anyone on the team is a shared failure across the organization, and responsibility for that failure will land at the feet of whoever is at the lead.
If we perceive a vulnerability due to a colleague’s lack of engagement—either owing to similar past experiences or acutely from the red flags of unfulfilled deadlines, a lack of responsiveness, or general disinterest—we are still responsible to ensure they deliver what is required for our collective success. Here are some practices we can employ to manage reluctant colleagues:
• Overcommunicate. It is a good idea to distribute written minutes of important meetings to everyone, but don’t expect they will read them carefully. Schedule a briefing session on the phone or in person with colleagues who have missed an important meeting to relay essential information, updates, and revisions to the plan.
• Check In Often. Arrange a quick meeting, stop by, or call to ask, “How is everything going?” Doing so can be very effective and communicates your reliance on your colleagues’ contributions. Ask them where their greatest areas of concern lie, and how they might handle them if things go wrong.
• Offer Help. Ask how you and other members of the team can be helpful to their efforts. Get one or more secondary contacts for when a colleague is unavailable. Include the secondary contacts in meeting notices and on written communications.
• Keep Calm and Remain Vigilant. Although I am a great believer in letting experts do their jobs without interference, pay particularly close attention if you think a job isn’t being done. Check in more often as deadlines approach. Have your own Plan B on how you will handle problems stemming from any area where you perceive vulnerabilities.
There is one last point to make before we conclude the conversation about building an environment of empowerment and investing trust as leaders in our colleagues and teammates. It is exceedingly easy to undermine empowerment and obliterate trust. For me, all it takes is a lie. Just one. Personally, I cannot invest trust in anyone—colleague, superior, contractor, vendor, stakeholder, or customer-facing teammate—who proves to be untruthful or deceitful. When something goes wrong, we must be 100 percent sure that our decisions are based on complete and reliable information. Fixing a problem is far more important that assigning blame, and we cannot effectively manage or respond to a problem if the information we have is based on a lie. I hold myself to the same standard. I will not lie to you when something goes wrong, or at any other time. That is how I will earn your trust. Lie to me and you’re dead. Simple.
Investing trust in our teammates is only one-half of the equation. It is equally important to nurture the trust of the teammates we work with in us, starting with the most immediate level of our direct reports, and through them, to the rest of the organization. We must earn that trust from the first day we engage with our teammates, and on every day thereafter. We don’t earn that trust by proving how smart, capable, and talented we are. In part, we earn it by communicating our expectations, motivating teammates to meet or exceed them, and investing our trust in them. We also earn their trust by consistently, conscientiously, and honestly following through with our statements—doing what we say we will do.
By instituting and maintaining an environment of empowerment, we can transform a group of managers, supervisors, line staff, and contractors into a team focused on achieving individual and shared goals. As leaders, it is incumbent upon us to demonstrate daily our belief in the importance of every individual’s contribution as a member of our community of problem solvers who are on the lookout to keep things going right. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by leveling the playing field by modeling the standards and behaviors we want our teammates across the organization to emulate.