In companies and organizations, managers and supervisors play a major role in leading the smooth daily operation. Their job is to make sure everything is in place, and all the employees are working according to their roles and responsibilities. At the top of the management, the role of a CEO or president is to oversee the performance of managers and supervisors so that to complete the cycle of supervision.
But the role of a CEO is just limited to this one aspect? Let me shed some more light on this aspect.
The leadership qualities of a CEO are what make him a distinctive person and person to look forward to. A CEO must not offer his support to just the managers and senior management of the company. But even employees at the lower level should also have access to him. You can see many examples in the top companies around the world where the top leadership is always there for the employees.
One of the best leadership quotes you can get on this subject is from Bill Gates, the co-founder and former CEO and chairman of Microsoft. In his words, “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” It is quite a straightforward but powerful quote describing everything that leaders need to do to make themselves available to every employee in their company. And empower them so that everyone feels that he is important to the company.
Empowerment to the Employees
In literal terms, giving empowerment to the employees is all about giving them full confidence and assurance that whatever they are doing is right. Of course, there is a check and balance process to see what all the employees are doing on any given day and throughout the year. But empowerment is one aspect that gives employees the wings to fly, that is, confidence to do his task knowing that his work will be appreciated.
I am sure that most of you will be thinking about empowerment as I discuss this aspect. This is what every company needs to offer so that its employees will work with full confidence, right? But this is the textbook stuff as you will not find the majority of the companies working in such a way so that their employees are fully satisfied with the practices in the company concerning empowerment. Many companies are indulged in micromanagement, which can be termed as exactly the opposite of empowerment.
Let me shed some light on this aspect so that you can know why this is a very toxic practice in any company, and why companies should refrain from doing so.
Micromanagement
Micromanagement of the employees is all about checking every aspect of their work throughout the day; he went to the extent that they get frustrated or irritated. Companies who indulge in such practices think that in this way we can keep a check on the employees so that they will work exactly according to the requirement. But they forget that too much interference in the work of the employees makes them feel insecure about their performance.
When an employee’s performance is scrutinized throughout the day and all through the month, he doesn’t feel happy as he is not empowered to do his job freely. Coming back to the quote of Bill Gates that I mentioned, hit and leaders only those who empower their employees. It looks like a simple job to empower the employees with everything they need, but several companies think of it as something not good for their own sake.
The top management of companies think that giving too much freedom to the employees will make them lenient, and their approach towards the work will not be professional. This is not true as we can see examples of the top companies in the world like Google, Amazon, and Facebook as the employees work there with full freedom, and the performance of these companies is well known.
Over to you
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