Many organizations and people have a tendency to mistakenly use the words “delegation” and “empowerment” interchangeably, thinking that they are basically the same thing. This can become a fatal flaw. We’re not talking about simple nuance or semantics, but differences that will lead you in completely opposite directions. Recently I was in a conversation with some friends, discussing the differences between delegation and empowerment. This is my Top 5 List that I walked away from the conversation with:
Delegation Empowerment
Freeing people to accomplish tasks Freeing people to make decisions
Operate within the leaders preferences Operate within organizational values
The leader is the boss The leader is the coach
Builds more managers Builds more leaders
Leads to quality control Leads to innovation
Both types of skills and leadership styles are needed in any organization to function well. In fact you can grow a church both ways. But you can’t be a leader of 1000’s because one style attracts good managers…the other attracts good leaders.
Question:
Which is your natural style? What other differences would you add to the list? Leave a comment.
Posted in Leadership, Staffing
