Stop Telling Your Employees What to Do

Jordan Cohen, in the Harvard Business Review tells a great story that drives the point home about empowerment. For the digital executive, it makes sense to focus on outcomes of the customer experience and let creative talent figure out how to execute that for the customer.

I will never forget the experiences of getting my first suit. I was 12 years old and my father took me to a department store on 18th street in New York City. I was very excited; this was the transition to feeling grown up. A real milestone. I would have a suit like all the grown men I knew.

At the store, we headed straight downstairs to the boys department and I tried on several cream-colored suits (very mid-1970s Saturday Night Fever). Once we found the right one, the tailor had me stand on a box in front of a mirror. He then went to work pinning and marking for the alteration. When he finished he stepped back, and he and my father looked at the suit pinned on me. In the mirror, I saw my father point to the back and shoulder of the jacket and sleeve and then shake his head no. The tailor went back to work, re-pinning and re-marking. Once again, my father shook his head no. So the tailor added padding under my shoulder. Still, my father shook his head. After about 30 minutes of back-and-forth, finally my father nodded and my cream colored, three-piece suit with bell bottom pants went off for alteration.

For me, the experience was long and boring and not as exciting as I anticipated. On the car ride home I asked my father why he didn't just tell the tailor what to do (my father was a clothing manufacturer). He explained, "if I told the tailor what to do, he would have done exactly what I had requested — but then if the jacket didn't fit properly, he would have said, 'I did what you told me to do'. On the other hand, if I told him what we are trying to achieve (for the jacket to lay flat with no pulling in the back, shoulder, or sleeve) he could be responsible for the outcome I described."

via Stop Telling Your Employees What to Do - Jordan Cohen - Harvard Business Review.