Empowering individuals to do better

At the core of an Agile organization is the idea of empowering individuals and teams to self-organize around aggressive visions and goals and executing.

As an Agile growth capital fund investing in expansion stage software companies, we constantly strive to coach and empower our portfolio companies, as well as our own team, to achieve higher performance.

Furthermore, we coach CEO’s and senior management team members on how to delegate to and empower their teams to work better for them.

Here are some quick thoughts on delegation and empowerment.

They may seem obvious, but it’s actually hard to do them all well all the time and customize it appropriately for the right situation and person.
 

• Clearly indicate to the individual what exactly they are responsible for, and make sure they understand the buck stops with them—they own it
• Indicate you think they’ll do a fantastic job with it
• Make clear that you’re there to *support them*, rather than manage, with answers to question, assistance, etc.
• Make sure you communicate in different ways *why* what they’re doing is super important, and what else it impacts
• Depending on what it is, walk them through *how* to approach a specific tasks
• Walk them through specific issues / impediments you think will arise, and walk them through *how* to resolve those
• Ask them what their concerns are, what issues they foresee, and walk through together *how* to resolve those
• Think through any tools / guides it makes sense to give them
• Ask them questions to quiz them a bit on what you’ve discussed, on the why’s and the how’s

For specific tasks / projects, here’s a nice rule of thumb:
 

• The first time, do it for them and make sure they watch. Explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Give them opportunity to ask questions.
• The second time, do it together.
• The third time, they do it, you watch and give feedback.

To truly do this well, you need to have a lot of time, energy, and patience in the early part of the project.
 
In terms of providing ongoing support, when the empowered comes to you with a problem or question, don’t give them the answer. Ask them questions that help them think through the problem and come up with their own answers.
 
Some times it just helps to start with:
“What do you think the solution is?”
 
If they give the “wrong” answer, ask questions that they can answer that will lead them to understand it’s the wrong solution and why and ultimately lead them to the right one.
 
If they say “I don’t know”, challenge them with questions.
 
Sometimes they already know the right answer, but don’t have confidence to act on it or even share it. Tease it out.
 
Just be sure to not do any of this in a patronizing way or an impatient way or attacking way.
 
I believe that often people actually can figure out the answer themselves, or know it, without realizing it. If you give them the answer, they’ll never learn how to figure it out, and won’t feel empowered. If you challenge them with questions, you can move them in the right direction (not everyone, of course).
 
But you need time, energy, and patience for this.
 
Here are two articles that influence some of the thoughts above on empowerment:
http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/management/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12497834
http://jeffsutherland.com/scrum/2008/05/scrum-makes-you-smarter.html