Delegating for Employee Empowerment

Presented by The Department of

Military ScienceJamie Fischer and

Joe Berube Student Employment Leadership Team

29 January 2009

Agenda

• Background• Leader Attributes• Mission and Tasks• Practical Exercise 1• Role of Leaders• After Action Review• Counseling• Practical Exercise 2• Summary

Background

• Army Doctrine– FM 6-22 ‘Army Leadership’: Competent leaders know the best way to create a solid

organization is to empower subordinates. Give them a task, delegate the necessary authority, and let them do the work. Empowering the team does not mean omitting checks and making corrections when necessary.

• Why Delegating to Empower is important to us: Allows the Army leader to build high-performing and cohesive organizations able to effectively project and support land power. It also creates positive organizational climates, allowing for individual and team learning, and empathy for all team members, Soldiers, civilians, and their families.

Background continued

Differences• Train to lead• Train for the Marathon, not the Sprint• Conditions• Need to depend on peers to survive• Decision-making has life or death consequences• Training is always a part of the cycle

Similarities• Core components of leadership

• Decision making• Communications

• Assimilate information• Apply analytical problem solving

• Logically and convincing approach to problem solving

• Ability to delegate• Show initiative• Share, adopt, and apply best practices

Leader Attributes

ATTRIBUTESMental - Physical - Emotional

SKILLS Conceptual Technical Interpersonal Tactical

ACTIONS

Influencing Operating Improving Communications Planning Developing Decision Making Executing Building Motivating Assessing Learning

Mission

Mission Statement

Essential Tasks

METL – Mission Essential Task List

Task, condition, and standard

Enabling Tasks

Collective Tasks

Individual Tasks

Practical Exercise

Supervisors

1. Are leaders

2. Accomplish the mission/task

3. Care for their people

4. Enhance the personal growth of workers

5. Do not waste them

What do leaders do?

• They devote themselves to serving the needs and

achieving the goals of the organizations.• They devote themselves to serving the needs of those

they lead.• They facilitate personal growth and development in

those they lead.• They encourage and value input and self expression

from those they lead.• They are good listeners and effective at building strong

cross functional and collaborative teamwork.

How to Conduct anAfter Action Review (AAR)

What is an AAR?

• A professional discussion of an event that enables a team to discover for themselves…– WHAT happened– WHY it happened– HOW to sustain strengths & improve

weaknesses

• An opportunity to capture lessons learned

Improves individual and collective performance by providing immediate feedback

An AAR Should Include…

• Identification of the Issue– WHAT happened?

• Discussion of the Issue– WHY did it happen?

• Recommendation– HOW to sustain strengths & improve

weaknesses

Opportunity to capture lessons learned

An AAR is NOT…

• A lecture

• A discussion of minor events

• A gripe session

• Intended to embarrass anyone

AAR: A Multipurpose Tool

• Guide organization toward achieving training objectives

• Identify lessons learned so they can be applied during subsequent events

• Increase confidence in organizational leaders

• Increase proficiency of all participants

“That sounds great, but we’re NOT the Army…”

How the AAR can work in the civilian workplace:• Creates a climate of trust and openness• Brings learning to a deeper level which

increases ownership• Team’s participation ensures that a lesson

was actually learned• It is a system to disseminate lessons learned

from one team to the rest of the organization

Critical Elements to Successful AAR

Things to Include:• Involve all participants• Conduct ASAP after event• Focus on training objective & meeting the company’s standards• Focus on the employee, leader, and team’s performance• Use open-ended questions• Make AARs positive in nature

Things to Avoid:• Lecturing• Critiquing, criticizing, or judging performance• Embarrassing team members or leaders• Comparing teams/sections• Complaining (“gripe sessions”)• Assigning blame

Example

AAR Plan Worksheet

PREPARE

• Take notes during training.

• Organize resources.

• Write an AAR outline.

AAR Observation Worksheet

Example

CONDUCT

• Introduction and AAR rules of engagement• Review of objectives & intent

– Training objectives– Mission – (what was supposed to happen?)– Relevant doctrine, tactics, techniques, and

procedures (TTPs)

• Summary of recent events (what happened?)

Phase 3: CONDUCT (continued)

• Discussion of key issues– Chronological order of events– Necessary equipment– Key events/ themes/ issues– Plan, prepare, and execute

(technique)

• Discussion of other issues– Employee skills– Tasks to sustain/ improve– Safety

AAR Key Leader Assessment

Example

IMMEDIATE FOLLOW-UP

.

• Converts talk into action!  • Helps to build confidence and cohesion as the team members have the opportunity to see themselves improve.  • Follows the principle of "train for success."

Long Term FOLLOW-UP

• Leading and recording AARs. 

• Sharing observations with others. 

• Providing advice and feedback to doctrine, training, and equipment working groups. 

• Providing advice to teams training for next event.

CLOSE THE LOOP

The follow-up step of the AAR Process enables thecompany to "close the loop" by:

• Encouraging employees to identify and develop ways to improve and providing them with the opportunity to put their improvements into practice. 

• Using the lessons from one event to improve the planning and training for the next. 

• Assimilating improvements into doctrine, training, equipment, and personnel policy

 

Individual Development and Assessment

• Duty description

• Performance objectives

• Significant contributions

• Performance evaluations

Questions?

Counseling Techniques

• Respect for subordinates• Self and cultural awareness• Credibility• Empathy

Qualities for Effective Counseling:

Counseling Skills

• Active Listening

• Responding

• Questioning

• Avoiding Counseling Errors

What is active listening?

• Active listening involves:

• communicating verbally and nonverbally

• practicing “uninterrupted” listening

• restating the message

• observing the sender’s nonverbal signals

Attending posture

A nonverbal skill = SOLER

Listening skills

• Reflective statements get at the real meaning• Nonverbal and verbal cues often conflict!• Recognize nonverbal posture: It’s the real thing!

Questions skills

• Ask questions…not too many

• Avoid “why” questions

• Ask open-end questions

Common Counseling Errors

• Dominating session; talk too much

• Projecting biases and prejudices

• Loss of emotional control

• Poor, improper follow-up

• Rash judgement

• Rushed session and closure

DA Form 4856-E

• Key elements of form:• Purpose of counseling• Key points of discussion• Develop action plan• Close the session• Leader responsibilities• Assessment of action plan

Practical Exercise

Summary

• We discussed what the Army can teach civilian leaders

• Attributes of a Leader

• Mission and Tasks

• Role of Leaders

• After Action Review

• Counseling