This means that your employees will be given more space to make their own decisions, to think for themselves about the design of their own function. Employees must think and act as independenst, says consultant David Lee. He cites a study made by Daniel Pink in his book 'Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Really Motivates Us'.
More autonomy = Faster growth + Higher retention
In this study, conducted by Cornell University, half of the 320 companies studied direct their employees according to the 'command and control' principle. The other half of the companies gave their employees a greater amount of autonomy.
The companies that gave employees autonomy:
· Grew four times faster than the companies that command and control their employees.
· Had only one third of the turnover of the companies that manage their employees according to the command and control principle.
More autonomy = more productive + initiative
Research, published in 'A Study of Voluntary Effort in the Workforce', showed that when employees are responsible for their own work they tend to put more effort into it. If employees are given more autonomy, they work harder.
More autonomy = Greater resilience
Command and control environments give employees little room to think for themselves and make decisions. This leads to "helpless people." These employees do not learn to think for themselves and only act within the guidelines they have been set. So, as soon as a task is complete, they wait passively for orders rather than take the initiative.
If employees have autonomy they build trust, they become more resourceful and address issues proactively. These employees have much more resilience. They can cope better with pressure and can adapt more easily to changing circumstances.
9 tips to promote autonomy within the organisation:
1. Allow managers see the importance of autonomy;
2. Let people see the importance of autonomy. If you doubt whether an employee can handle more autonomy, say so honestly;
3. Work out a plan where, step by step, more autonomy is being worked in;
4. Ask people if they have the resources and knowledge to “run their own business”;
5. Limit micromanagement;
6. When you give a command, then let people decide how they will approach this;
7. Give employees the opportunity to experiment;
8. Pay attention to successful new ideas and solutions that come from experiments;
9. If an employee is trying something new and fails, create a learning moment of it. Ask what the employee has learned and how this can be avoided in the future.