April 2023
A Note From Rene’
Do you struggle with delegation? Are you empowering your team? The first article in this month’s newsletter addresses the importance of letting go of some of your responsibilities so that you can focus on more important things. This is the only way to have a succession plan for the future.
How are you at delivering difficult conversations to your team? It’s never easy, but sometimes we make it much worse than it has to be. This month’s second article gives some great examples of what not to do. If you watch the TV show Succession, you’ll definitely recognize some of these tactics. Don’t be like the Roy family!
I hope you find these two articles helpful. Maybe they’ll even stimulate a few “ah-ha” moments! As always, please let me know if you want to brainstorm sometime. I’d love to hear from you.
All my best!
René
5 Strategies to Empower Employees to Make Decisions
Autonomy is a hallmark of an innovative culture. The ability to make decisions for yourself enhances motivation, which in turn contributes to higher levels of performance and well-being. It also gives leaders more time to focus on the most significant and complex decisions and explore new sources of value creation. Creating more autonomy involves shifting power from the top and center of the organization to the front line by empowering people to make decisions.
It might look straightforward. In practice, it’s hard to pull off. It’s a big change for executives who have “grown up” in traditional, hierarchical organizations, in which decision-making authority is held tightly by a select few and many decisions are left unspoken.
How to Make Difficult Conversations Worse, as Seen on “Succession”
Difficult conversations are a part of life, yet many people don’t know how to have them. Whether it’s addressing a sensitive topic with a friend or confronting a coworker about a problem at work, these conversations can be uncomfortable and even intimidating.
In various scenes throughout “Rehearsal,” the most recent episode of HBO’s hit show Succession, characters are trying to have a difficult conversation, but it’s almost as if the air is thick with tension and suspicion. You may have been in similar situations in the past: You’re hesitant to speak openly because you fear that your words will be used against you or twisted into something they’re not. It’s like you’re walking through a minefield, unsure of where the next explosion will come from.
