Describe a time when you have been empowered to accomplish something. Reflect on how others supported you and how the endeavor was accomplished. How can you apply those lessons to your own followers?
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For the last 11 years I have been employed by one of the largest offshore helicopter service providers in the world. It has been a wonderful place to work and has provided my family and I with a comfortable living. However, throughout the years I have never felt like I have had a good relationship with management. It is not that I have had a bad relationship with management, I simply have not had one. For years I felt that I was better off if they did not know my name. I used to get very nervous anytime I had to go see management for any reason. A few years ago I received a message that I had to go visit the chief pilot after I returned from a flight. I started to panic! I racked my brain trying to remember what I had done wrong and what I was going to get in trouble for! When I walked into his office, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, he asked me to take a seat. He pulled a small box out of his desk and congratulated me for my five-year anniversary with the company! That was the relationship I had with management.
A couple years ago the director of operations was replaced. Instead of promoting from within, he was hired from the outside. Nobody knew him or what he was like. It turned out to be a great move for the company. He is unlike other management personnel we have had over the years. He is very personable, humble, and willing to listen. Instead of handing out mandates he is interested in the opinion of others and their suggestions. Because of his management style I have felt empowered as an employee. I have felt that my opinion matters, that my concerns are valid, and that I will be heard.
Just a few months ago a pilot that worked under me was terminated because of unsatisfactory performance on a check ride. I was concerned because the reasons that were given for his termination seemed biased and unfair. I felt so empowered by this director of operations that I was comfortable enough to ask him for an appointment. When I met with him in his office I was able to voice my concerns, and the concerns of other pilots that work for me. By the end of our conversation he had not only settled my concerns, but helped me to see that terminating the pilot was the only choice he had.
The empowerment that I experienced was psychological. It came little by little; not the result of a position, an email, or a specific authority that was delegated. It seems that what I experienced is exactly what Saray, Patache, and Ceran (2017) described: “Empowerment is also a psychological process, which occurs when one has a sense of motivation in relation to the workplace environment.”
As I have worked closely with the director of operations I have tried to adopt some of his attributes in my own leadership activities. I feel that this has been a natural process due to the fact that we have similar personalities. Whetten and Cameron indicated (2016) that empowerment happens as others feel “that they are accepted, that they are a valued asset, that you care about them, and that they are an integral part of the overall organizational mission or objective.” I can empower those that I oversee as I follow the example of the director of operations and provide support and create confidence in others (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).
References
Saray, H., Patache, L., & Ceran, M. B. (2017). Effects of employee empowerment as a part of innovation management. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 12(2), 88.
Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills 9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.
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