Managers - Let Your Employees Make Decisions

One of the best managers I ever had taught me a very valuable lesson about management.  She was a manager at the first bank I worked at.  I was a supervisor of all of the bank tellers.  She delegated decision-making powers to all of her staff.  Of course, the level of decision-making was different for the different levels of workers.  In other words, the assistant managers had the ability to make decisions on more important matters than did the supervisors and the supervisors had more leeway than did the tellers.  It was one of the most important lessons I learned about managing.

The idea of giving decision-making powers to a staff is very scary for many managers.  They are either afraid to give up power or they are afraid of mistakes being made.  But giving the power to make decisions to your staff shows that you have trust in them.  I am not advocating that every staff member have the "power" to make every decision across the board.  Obviously, not every worker is capable of making every decision.  Another thing to consider is that managers are usually in the position they are in because they possess strong decision-making skills.  But it is important to allow all workers to make some decisions.  Here are some things to consider when allocating decision-making powers to your staff.

1.  Evaluate each worker and allocate decision-making powers based on their position.  In my situation, bank tellers did not have the same level of authority for making decisions as did the managers and supervisors.  You still have to maintain separation of powers in order to maintain hierarchy within the organization or business.

2.  Inform each worker of the level of decision-making that they possess.  Make it clear what they can and cannot do in relations to making decisions.  For example, bank tellers had the authority to cash checks for customers up to a certain level of money without having to have a supervisor's permission or approval.  Supervisors had a much higher threshold and so on.  You do not want bank tellers approving transactions for tens of thousands of dollars without their supervisor's approval.

3.  Remember that you, as the manager, are still responsible for the workers decisions.  Do not let them hang out to dry if they make a decision and it is wrong.  You must accept accountability for their decision as long as they followed the guidelines that you implemented for them.  My manager always told her supervisors and assistant managers that we had the authority to make decisions and she would stand behind us on any of them as long as we could show why we made that decision and the basis for it. 

4.  Supporting your staff's decisions is important because it shows trust.  It builds trust between the managers and the staff.  Standing behind them empowers them to make decisions without always second-guessing themselves.

5.  Empowering your staff to make decisions instills confidence in them.  The staff feels that you trust them to make important decisions and gains confidence in themselves as they make more.

6.  Allowing your staff to make decisions allows you, the manager, to spend your time on more important tasks.  Managers should be spending their time on more important tasks and decision-making rather than just the trivial issues that arise hundreds of times a day.  Allowing others to make those decisions gives you the time to do more important tasks.

7.  The staff feels like they are making a contribution to the organization or business when they are allowed to make decisions.  As a result they become more productive and loyal to the organization.

8.  If one of your workers makes a mistake while making a decision, sit down with them and explain why it was wrong.  Do not berate them in front of others or even alone.  Explain why the decision was wrong and help them understand what the right decision should have been for the situation.

9.  Spend some time coaching your staff on decision-making skills.  They will only improve if you help them.

10.  Remember that some members of the staff will not feel comfortable under any situation or conditions in making decisions.  That is important because you do not want people who are unsure of themselves making decisions.  Do not put them in a situation where they are forced to do so if they are uncomfortable with it.

Decision-making is important in every organization and business.  Making the wrong decision in some instances can be devastating to an organization.  These decisions should be left to the managers.  Do not be afraid to delegate decision-making but be sure to set guidelines for the level of decision-making allowed for each level of workers.  If this is done correctly, productivity, confidence, and loyalty will increase in your organization.

Save K-12 Education in Michigan, Take Action

I am writing to urge all of you to call or email your state Representative and Senator in the state of Michigan requesting that they stop Governor Snyder's attempt to take money from the School Aid Fund for the funding of community colleges and universities.  As Harrison Superintendent Tom House has written recently, Proposal A was not passed by citizens with the intent of funding higher education.  While it would appear that taking funds from this account for the purpose of funding colleges would be unconstitutional, Democrats and moderate Republican state legislators are currently looking at amending the State Constitution to make sure that the transfer of these funds cannot occur.  While it is a terrible time for cuts in any form of education, colleges and universities are able to make up their losses through other options such as raising tuition or cutting their own costs.  A story in this past Sunday's Detroit Free Press shows that the average state university's administration costs have risen almost 30% in recent years.  This is unsustainable and unreasonable in today's economic climate. So while teachers and instructors are constantly demonized by the media as the reason for the problems that exist in funding our schools, it is time to do your own research and look at the rising administrative costs and money dedicated to research rather than actual instruction.  Colleges and universities should be held to the same fiscal responsibility and accountability that our local school systems are being asked to subject themselves to.  Our local schools cannot cut any more without severely decimating the current educational system.  What good is it to fund our community colleges and universities if there are no students left in our local schools to send there?  

Unemployment Falls to 8.8% - Yay

Today the US Labor Department announced the the nation's unemployment rate fell to it's lowest point in two years - 8.8%.  This signifies a whopping .1% drop from the month before.  All of that work by Congress and the President as well as state legislators must finally be paying off as they promised to "create jobs".  In fact, more than 200,000 jobs were created last month.  That is the second straight month that at least 200,000 jobs were created - the first time since 2006.  


But don't get out the confetti yet.  As I was always taught in college, figures lie and liars figure.   So lets take a look at some real numbers.  The number of unemployed people dipped to 13.5 million in March, still almost double the amount of people since before the recession officially began in December 2007.  And more importantly, the percentage of people who are working part-time jobs but would rather be working full-time and those who gave up looking for work altogether now stands at 15.7%.  So when added together almost 24% of the American workforce is either unemployed or underemployed.  Or to put it simply, almost 1 in 4 American workers are not very happy with their situation right now. 

While today's news may seem to get the investors and speculators all giddy, I warn against throwing any wild celebrations yet.  Even if jobs continue to be created at this rate, it will only lead to a growth of nearly 2.5 million jobs by the end of the year.  But remember that nearly 7.5 million jobs were lost since the recession began.  Besides that, massive budget cuts by the government at all levels are going to begin creating even larger job losses within the public sector in the next few months, negating many of the jobs created within the private sector.

Throw in the growing gas and food prices, continued billions of dollars thrown to the wars in the Middle East on a daily basis, and the inability of our current legislators to produce any job that doesn't require joining the military or cleaning up an oil spill and we have the table set to tip us right into another recession rather quickly.  

So while today's unemployment news may be making Wall Street ecstatic, I remind you that most of the jobs created last month were in the financial/banking sector.  Wasn't it a banking collapse that put us in this situation to begin with?