Who is Empowering Your Organization?

#When considering which individuals empower an organization, is it essential to understand what qualities make a great leader? Through almost a decade of experience working in both the private and military sectors, I have often found the scope and manner of defining leadership often vary from individual to individual, and organization to organization. For this reason, studies have been conducted, and business schools teach on multiple styles of leadership. In questioning these characteristics, I recall what John C. Maxwell once stated, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Perhaps the reason why the “Outliers” such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Phelps, and Walt Disney have been abundantly successful is that each of them had futuristic visions, and knew how to turn ideas into real-world success stories? 

In the setting of total quality management, individuals who empower the organization are often leaders who understand that the customer must be the organization’s top priority. The organization’s survival depends on the customers. For this reason, there is an essential need to take care of internal and external customers to ensure satisfaction and increase loyalty. When leaders empower internal customers, for example, employees, this is felt throughout the entire organization, and as a result there is stronger job performance, job satisfaction, and commitment. Within the confines of military and government contracting, leaders, including commission officers and business owners, often empower employees, soldiers and customer service representatives, through the delegation of authority, sharing information, asking for inputs, and encouraging decision making. This style of leadership often encourages employees to generate innovate methods and ideas to increase job performance and assist other team members. When employees feel empowered, they provide great levels of service to external customers.