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How to Do the Right Thing

Council Of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) Update --
By: Leslie Yerkes

The buzzword is empowerment. The meaning is: to invest with authority, to allow and encourage responsible action. Employees who are truly empowered are a tremendous boon to any business. When an employee can confidently and successfully handle questions, make decisions, and take action without using your time to make those calls, the benefit to the business is geometric.

Your time can then be spent on developing and polishing the strategic plans and projects that will become tomorrow's brush fires if you don't spend enough preparation time on them today.

Here are what I call the "Five Final Filters," five questions which every empowered employee needs to ask of any decision.

1. Does it pursue our mission? Each and every employee should be familiar with the mission statement of your company so they can decide if the course of action under consideration follows that mission or not. If the answer is "No," the answer to the problem is also no. If the answer is "Yes, it pursues our mission," then comes the next question.
2. Is it congruent with our values? The values of your company should be obvious, apparent, and written down so they can be read, compared, and followed. Then, and only then, will those values become an integral part of the employee's decision-making process.
3. Does it ensure quality? If quality is important to you, then decisions should be made based on how well the decision ensures quality work, products and service.
4. Is it delivered with a service conscience? If a decision is truly to benefit your company, then service must be a part of that decision. If the service is not there, "Just Say No!"
5. Is it fiscally responsible? Is the price right? Is it too expensive? Can we afford it? As you can see, price should be the last question answered, not the first. When fiscal responsibility is the last parameter, the FINAL filter, then you and your employee will know that the decisions being made are being based on the right things in the right order.