The process as a diagnostic tool

Establishing the framework for empowerment is a key step for your organization, and the empowerment process we’ve described here is designed to guide everyone in your organization in achieving their goals. It establishes the goals, sets boundaries, and provides criteria for the conditions that must exist for empowerment to occur.

The empowerment process also is a very effective means for diagnosing why goals are not being met. In this case, you can look at the boundaries, to ensure that they have been properly set and explained, and you also can look at the three-circle diagram to determine if there is some lack of principles, reliability, or competence.

As an illustration, let’s assume that the proper goals have been established, that the boundaries have been set and explained correctly, but that the goals are not being met. You can then turn to the three-circle diagram to look for an explanation corresponding to one of the three circles.

For example, it might be that the employee is violating principles. Perhaps he is operating in a way that is contrary to your vision, or is offending customers, or is violating company policies. This requires corrective action on your part, in order to get the employee back on the path to meeting the goals.

If the breach in principles is a misunderstanding on the part of the employee, or is something done in ignorance, you may decide that some coaching and training are quite sufficient. If, on the other hand, the breach in principles arises from a fundamental difference in viewpoints between the company and the employee (for example, has distain for customers or for the company vision), you likely will need to take strong action, perhaps leading to the employee’s separation from your organization. As we mentioned previously, we don’t believe it’s worthwhile for you to try to instill new principles in your team members.

Alternatively, you might determine that the employee and the company share principles, but that the employee is unreliable or not sufficiently competent. In either event, you can diagnose the problem to determine if coaching and training can provide a solution (has the right attitude, skills, and experience) or if, instead, you must take more drastic measures (is lacking in needed natural abilities).