Employee empowerment can take many forms; however, at it’s most fundamental, it can be broken down into two types: actual and psychological.

By its nature, empowerment starts at the top. Empowerment must first be given by those who have the power to do so. This is actual empowerment, the granting of increased roles, responsibilities, and authority.

Then it must be embraced by those who have been given greater authority. This is psychological empowerment, how employees feel about using the powers they’ve been granted.

Are they comfortable using the power they have? Do they feel safe making decisions to help the customer without any form of approval from a superior?

Academics studying the empowerment generally consider these two types to be separate and distinct phenomena.

Why Understanding Psychological Empowerment Is Crucial

As you will hear in the video below, organizations often don’t consider the psychological piece when empowering employees. Worse, for companies that are shifting culturally from a command and control approach to a more empowered one, the psychological piece is the most important.

Just because you grant employees more power and authority, they still might not feel empowered. And when employees don’t feel empowered, they are unlikely to use the tools you have given them to resolve customer issues promptly and on the spot.

Employee empowerment is an effective and powerful tool for creating more rewarding experiences for your employees and customers alike. Done smartly, empowerment can give employees the tools and authority they need to make customer experiences more successful and operations more profitable.

However, leadership must help bridge the gap between actual and psychological empowerment.

Don’t just give your team more power; make sure they truly feel empowered.

If you can create a team that is both empowered smartly and which is ready to use their empowerment to improve customer experiences, empowerment can be an effective tool for creating Hero-Class^® customer experiences.

Just remember though, that without psychological empowerment, actual empowerment is of limited value.

Without psychological empowerment, employee empowerment is of limited value.

For more on employee empowerment, make sure to check out our fantastic resource: The Ultimate Starter Guide to Employee Empowerment.

Also, want to see how the legendary Ritz-Carlton approaches empowerment? Check out The Ritz-Carlton’s Famous $2,000 Rule.