When an employee reliably manages priorities and achieves goals, and consistently demonstrates an understanding about the Company’s purpose and values, leaders want to make it easier for that person to operate more autonomously. Autonomy is a proven motivator, and it liberates time for the leader.
Autonomy defeats mediocrity and improves results.
Our basic nature is to be self-directed. Autonomy enables us to exercise some control over our lives; it’s empowering because the employee is making a conscious choice rather than one directed from the leader. Autonomy communicates mutual trust and respect between leader and associate. As a motivator, it promotes higher productivity, greater initiative and perseverance, and less burn-out.
But autonomy is not independence. There are still goals to achieve, schedules to follow, expectations to meet or exceed. When some component in the established routine is disrupted – a new person joins the team, a new process is implemented, a new expectation evolves – or when something goes wrong in the usual process, then the leader must return to a more directive management style, but only until the routine is adjusted to adapt to the change.
In his book, Drive, Daniel Pink counsels that moving towards autonomous management requires that the leader evaluate four factors: (1) what tasks your people are doing, (2) when they do it, (3) how they do it, and (4) with whom they do it. Different people favor different aspects of autonomy. The job to be accomplished may be clear, but enabling the employee to manage the schedule of tasks so they are finished on time is very motivating. Allowing the employee to master the technique needed to consistently complete the job well, or to provide the means for a person to work with those they respect and trust, just multiplies the motivational impact.
We’re born to be self-directed individuals. When people learn their boundaries and how to operate within them, they engage more deeply in their work and defeat the mediocrity that costs so much in lost energy, money and time.
What steps might you take to expand autonomy in your operation?
How can a proven best practice be utilized to promote greater self-direction throughout a team?
