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The empowerment advantage
A culture of employee empowerment will define innovative, leading organizations in the years to come.
E very Ritz-Carlton employee is empowered to improve a guest’s experience. Employees can spend up to $2,000 of hotel funds to please a guest. This approach has a powerful impact on the Ritz-Carlton reputation with guests. As one Ritz-Carlton employee put it, “Sometimes the most delightful ‘wow’ moments happen in the blink of an eye. If employees are not empowered and need to cross layers of approval, these moments could be lost forever.” Our industry can learn from the Ritz and reap benefits by embracing an empowerment environment.
Kevin Token
work. People who feel responsible for their work put in extra effort. A sense of responsibility eliminates any “That’s not my job” or “She told me to send it out, so I sent it out” mentality. It spurs people to sound the alarm if they see trouble looming. ❚ ❚ Empowered employees are happier and col- laborate. Employees want responsibility, although they might not call it empowerment. Recently I had a conversation with a young architect who said, “I want to be given an objective and then given the responsibility to figure it out. I’m young and don’t know everything, but I want to collaborate to create
These are the elements of an empowerment culture: ❚ ❚ Empowerment improves the service provided to clients. Empower the person closest to the deci- sion point. If a designer in the field is asked a ques- tion, the answer to that question may impact time, money, and quality. If that designer has the author- ity and the training to answer the question without consulting others, the project can keep moving. No wonder a Gallup study found “organizations that empower employees experience 50 percent higher customer loyalty.” ❚ ❚ Empowerment improves the quality of your
See KEVIN TOKEN, page 3
THE ZWEIG LETTER May 20, 2019, ISSUE 1297
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