09/05/2018
While discussing team empowerment with one executive, a picture instantly came to my mind:
My 2 years old was learning to play on the slide at playground. I encouraged her to hold on the handrails and climb the stairs on her own. I was watching closely to make sure she wouldn’t fall hard. She missed some steps and fell backwards but she learned from that and later did much better.
She sometimes asked me to hold her hand to climb so she wouldn’t make mistake, but I kept encouraging her to try by herself.
She resisted on continuing to climb by herself after miss-step. I said to her “trust mummy, you will do better this time” it turned out true she didn’t miss steps anymore.
She slowly grew confidence when she realized mummy was making sure she not fall, then she started climbing faster & better. She became skilful then mastered it without making anymore mistake. She’s fully on her own now.
It’s not related to team empowerment at all. However, I can see some similarities here:
• Both are about enablement
• Both use significant coaching approach
• Both make sure taking ownership & responsibility
• Both allow to make mistake and learn from experience
• Both create opportunity to work on their own
• Both have risk-control
• Both build skills in themselves
