QUESTIONSANDANSWERS
DDI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Bill Byham is cofounder, chairman, and CEO of DDI. Bill works to establish the vision, values, and strategic direction of the company. He supervises major DDI product development and consulting projects.
 

A leading proponent of employee empowerment and coauthor of business bestsellers such as Zapp!® and HeroZTM , Dr. Byham has successfully practiced his own preaching as cofounder and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Development Dimensions International, which he has shepherded from $50,000 in annual revenues 38 years ago to almost $200 million in sales this past year. This achievement earned him a regional Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the service category.

Dr. Byham recently took some time to discuss empowerment.
 
 

 

Can we empower other people or must they empower themselves?

  

Nobody knows for sure. We are all born with natural empowerment, but it has been extinguished along the way. From the business standpoint, whether we create the conditions that allow people to empower themselves or actually empower them ourselves is not relevant. Either way we create an empowered workforce.

  
     
     

What are some of the conditions required for the empowerment?

  
You have to create empowered jobs and develop measurements and goals for each job. You must also create an environment in which people are willing to take the risk of acting empowered. People need an environment of trust to become empowered. Finally, you must give employees the skills to be empowered.  
     
     

What kinds of skills training do you recommend?

  
Basic interaction skills are critical. Team and decision-making skills are important. Our belief is that you should train everyone to be a leader. Diversity training and problem-solving skills are also important. The more diverse the workforce, the more skills and ideas you get.  
     
     

Are there some skills that are especially important for managers?

  
One of the main skills is how to handle a good idea—and how to handle a poor idea—without sapping employee empowerment. Managers need to learn to monitor without controlling, and how to coach employees. One of the biggest management needs is modeling skills. They have to live the vision and values of the company. That is where empowerment efforts often break down.  
     
     

What does the empowerment implementation process look like?

  
The first step is to educate top management. They need to see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The second step is to decide how far and how fast the effort will go. The third is detailed work on the plan by an implementation team. The fourth step is to provide the upfront core training, and the fifth is to go for it.  
     
     

What would you say to managers who see employee empowerment as an abdication of their power?

  

I envision empowerment as sort of an atomic pile radiating energy, but it is not aimed at anything. It is the management’s responsibility to channel that energy into constructive ways. A big misunderstanding about empowerment is that it means the freedom to do whatever you want or that it means an abdication of power. I believe that the management must have a very clear and articulate vision that they lay out for people. Management must also ensure that all the systems—the pay system and the performance-appraisal system, for example—are aligned toward empowerment.