Empowerment can be tough sell
We are the market leader in our field said Mark Hansen CEO of Gosport shipbuilding Inc( GSi)
I build this company from the ground up. I know more about constructing gambling ships than anybody in the business that is why we are number one. My motto is think and employees work, this empowerment nonsense you are selling is just that nonsense. If I want employee’s opinion I will give it to him!”
Luke O’Hara, GSI’s new quality director listened respectfully as his boss ranted on but he had to admit that Hansen had a point. GSI’s CEO could do every job in the yard better than the best employees on his payroll. He was also right about GSI’s Position of the market leadership. He thought employee empowerment is going to be a tough sell with Hansen. After all strip away the bombast and what the CEO is saying: why fix what isn’t broken?”
Put yourself in Luke O’Hara’s place, you are the new quality director and you want to convince your new boss with the benefits of employees’ empowerment. How to convince Mark Hansen to change his mind?
First of all will talk about management definition: to do things through people.
May be the CEO can do every job better than his staff because they are not satisfied and do their jobs with very low performance as they are not feeling part of the organization and not participating in the decisions affecting their jobs. Will try to convince the CEO that not to rely on this as it is not good sign.GSI position in the market as number one may be entitled because there are no competitors or it is the only one company produces this product in this area.
Employees not involved and empowered will feel insecure and not satisfied which will reflect on customer satisfaction and employees turn over will increase.
Empowering employees will result in energizing them to work hard and do it right leading to reduce cost.
As per Helen Keller famous saying goes: alone we can do so little