The Houdini Can

THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD

            All the training in the world will
provide only limited success if you don’t turn your people loose to do
the job. The way to do that is to give them responsibility, authority and
accountability.

            For some people, responsibility is the easiest
to give. But what is difficult for some leaders is allowing their people to
keep the responsibility after it’s been given. Poor managers want to
control every detail of their people’s work. When that happens, the
potential leaders who work for them become frustrated and don’t develop.
Rather than desiring more responsibility, they become indifferent or avoid
responsibility altogether.

            With responsibility must go authority. Winston
Churchill said in an address, “I am your servant. You have the right to
dismiss me when you please. What you have no right to do is ask me to bear
responsibility without the power of action.”

            Once responsibility and authority  have been
given to people, they become empowered to make things happen. But we also have
to be sure that they are making the right things to happen. That’s where
accountability comes into the picture.

 
(From the book – Developing the Leaders Around You by
John Maxwell)