Leaders, Are Your Managers a Bottleneck to Employee Empowerment? || #Leadership

When it comes to employee empowerment, leaders AND managers have to empower. Otherwise managers become a throttling bottleneck to employee empowerment. So leaders, are your managers empowering employees or are they obstructing the empowerment you initially set in motion?



Employee Empowerment: Image is an egg in the neck of a bottle.

Employee Empowerment: Are Your Managers a Bottleneck? Image via The Beaker Life.

Image via The Beaker Life.


Employee Empowerment: Are Your Managers Blocking it?

When leaders approach me to help them initiate employee empowerment, I always request a meeting with all the managers, supervisors, and team leaders. In one particular instance I uncovered the following management belief that undermined empowerment:



Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™ – 1 min video.

This one management belief stops employee empowerment!


This discovery surprised the leader! She had no idea that the managers she empowered were a throttling bottleneck to employee empowerment. So we convened meetings with the managers to reset the beliefs and build empowerment in the organization.


Employee Empowerment: Clear the Managerial Bottleneck

Empowerment is a difficult concept for many managers. They deal with the nagging internal fear: “If the employees are empowered, what am I here for?” Get this question out on the table with managers early on. Also, address these errant beliefs that obstruct empowerment.

  • Employees don’t have enough experience to be empowered. False. Employees gain experience by being empowered. You expand their sphere of empowerment as they learn more and more.

  • Empowering employees is too risky and costly. Not true. Quite the opposite. Un-empowered employees are nothing more than puppets. Paying puppets costs a great deal of money. Empowered employees contribute the talent you hired

  • Empowerment is perk. Nip this destructive belief in the bud. Empowerment is not a right employees must earn after following the rules for years. It’s not a perk managers hand out. Empowerment is tapping the talent you hired for maximum contribution.



Employee Empowerment: Reset Managers’ Beliefs About Their Role

  • Leaders lead people. Managers lead processes. Scary thinking! Managers have everyday contact with employees If they don’t lead, inspire, and empower, performance goes down.

  • Leaders are change agents. Managers are supposed to keep the status quo. Read that one again — keep the status quo. This stops employee empowerment and growth. Remove this bottleneck to empowerment.



In summary leaders, if you want empowered employees make sure the managers:

  • Believe in it

  • Understand how their roles change yet remain important and …

  • Know how to empower employees

  • Do it.


I can help you unearth the hidden obstacles to employee empowerment in your organization and teach the managers how to do it. Let’s talk soon!

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™

Related Post:
Exceptional Empowerment: Keep Your Expertise Involved & Collaborate w/ Employees

©2018 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.


Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.


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