"Empowerment: The Path to Partnership"

Much of life in organizations today, inside and outside of education, is characterized by the centralization of power and control at the top of the organization. The leaders at the top value compliance and believe that without tight control and elaborate structures, chaos will run amuck. The people in the middle and at the bottom of the organization feel that the organization is the creation of others and certainly does not belong to them. Everyone in the organization is looking up keeping an eye on people who have control over them, always looking for permission from above before trying anything new. Everyone--top and bottom--seems to believe that the answers lie at the top where vision, purpose, and culture are created from those in power. In this type of organization, the leaders get compliance, but they pay a heavy price. The welfare of the organization is now totally on their shoulders. In exchange for the employees' compliance, the employees can now escape responsibility for what happens. They now get to blame the leaders when things go wrong.

There is an alternative model. The transition to a new leadership style starts with this question, "How can we create a way of governing ourselves that creates a strong sense of ownership and responsibility for outcomes throughout the organization--top, middle, and bottom?" Empowerment is part of the answer, according to author and management consultant Peter Block.

What does he mean by empowerment? Empowerment is the belief that my survival, my well-being, and my place in the world is in my own hands. It's the belief that the answers I need lie within or below me in the organization. It's the belief that self-expression is essential to living systems--human systems. It's a belief that the act of commitment gives meaning to what I do.

For each of us, empowerment means placing ourselves in the position of being creators of the organization to which we belong. Regardless of our level of power and privilege within the organization, empowerment is embodied in the act of standing on our own ground, discovering our own voice, making our own choices. It stems from the mindset that tells us that we have within ourselves the authority to act, speak, and serve those around us.

We begin developing an empowered workforce by shifting the focus from the top of the organization to the middle and the bottom. Remember, the goal is to instill a feeling of ownership, commitment, and responsibility throughout the organization. To do that we need to focus on the people doing the work and those close to them. Most traditional leadership theories proceed from the assumption that somehow leadership is about getting people to do something--either through influence or dominance--either the carrot or the stick. It's a silly thought to think we need to light a fire under people to get them going. The enlightened leader believes workers are motivated by a desire to contribute to the organization in which they work. They are simply waiting to be asked.

In this leadership with empowerment system--Block calls it partnership--there are senior and junior partners, but the workers (the junior partners) never lose their voice. Their self-expression is never squelched. And, in the partnership model, the bosses see the workers as customers and look for ways to serve them--quite the reverse of the "looking up, keep the boss happy" system. We all have a lot of work to do to implement this new partnership model. There is a lot of trust to build up and a lot of fear and cynicism to tear down.