Quality management class -

You have just received a promotion to a management position at DHL in Hebron, KY. You are now responsible for 22 employees in the package handling and distribution division. You begin your new role by meeting with your new team as a group and then holding 1/2 hour one on one meetings with every person individually. Although this is very time consuming, you decide that you want each employee to understand that you are invested in them as individuals and that they are critical to the organization. During these one on one meetings, you learn that most of the employees do NOT feel empowered. They feel that they can not be trusted to follow procedure and make decisions, that they do not feel they have adequate communication about changes that impact their work and they lack training on changing processes. In addition, they feel they are constantly told only what they do wrong and rarely told what they do well.

The feedback from your 22 employees is very consistent and across the board. Using the 6 principles of empowerment as your basis, what do you do to empower your new team of 22 employees?