>How about "leading" or "coaching?" Warren Bennis discussing empowerment
in _Reinventing Leadership_ says, "I like the model of a coach. One thing
that interests me about coaching is that when you go to a coach, you don't
try to deny or defend too much. You really talk about what your
weaknesses are, because you're going there to get better...Give your
people the license to tell the truth, remind people of what's important,
and then set expectations of excellence. Again, I think you do this by
modeling." [Even the top seeded tennis player has a coach.]
Coaching as a means of empowering? Then we would have to be very careful
about how we define coach, wouldn't we? It's almost as misused or as
imprecise as team. When you think of coach, do you thtink of the one on
television, Bobby (throw another chair at 'em) Knight, Phil Jackson of the
Chicago Bulls, the fathers and mothers who have ruined their children's
childhood and game in the case of some women tennis players.
Empowerment seems pretty simple in some ways. You are empowered, or at
least feel empowered, if you have both the responsibility to complete a
task or make a decision, the authority to do it in the best manner you
think possible, and the resources appropriate to the task or decision. In
that sense, if responsibility, authority and resources are allocated or
delegated to you, then you have been empowered. When a person, system, or
organization draws back from that allocation or delegation, they are
disempowering the person.
Can it be that simple?
Ned Hamson, editor: The Journal for Quality and Participation
Association for Quality and Participation, 801-B W. 8th St., Suite 501,
Cincinnati, OH 45203
Tel: 513-381-1979 Fax: 513-381-0070
e-mail: ParetoKid@aol.com
"This is the time... We are the people... Let's work together... Now!"
Sun, Mar 31, 1996
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