Spent the majority of my career trying to explain to my managers why I thought their management programs were wrong and failed. Then read a book and bang, author gets it.

Governance Public Utilities for @zksync at @thezknation

what do these empowerment programs tend to look like?

building /hatsprotocol | 
proudly mid-curving it since 1995

They sound like “I’m here to help you grow” “Let’s find ways to unlock my teams intrinsic motivation”

It assumes the leader is the one in control, and who keeps control

so two types of "empowerment"

1. general: "I'm here to help you grow"
2. specific: "here are the tools/resources/authorities you need to do your job well"

(1) feels wrong because that kind of power is not the manager's to give in the first place

I agree with this for resources that are a) publicly available, or b) within the purview of the employee (B is really what (1) is all about)

But resources like capital/funding that are owned by the org do need to be given/delegated to the employee.

Imho (2) is also wrong because creates dependence on the manager to give tools etc.

The whole thing for me is empowerment assumes one person has control and defines the space of movement of the other