Embracing employee empowerment in modern management

As finance leaders’ roles expand exponentially—requiring them to navigate overlapping changes in technology, society, and the economy— some CFOs may feel the need for a more nuanced approach to leadership that will enable them to effectively tap into employee initiative, innovation, and ingenuity.

But as finance chiefs attempt to rework corporate processes or standard operating practices, they may collide with a more foundational issue: their organization’s paradigm of power. Without knowing it, CFOs could be trying to force a power through approach in an organization that’s historically operated via a power over paradigm. What’s the difference? The power over method consolidates power in the hands of a few, using authority to achieve control over people and their work. The power through method requires building a shared sense of purpose, empowerment, and autonomy—enabling ownership at all levels of an organization.

Overthrowing the power over model in favor of a power through dynamic involves much more than a determined shift in mindset. This leadership shift represents a comprehensive change in thinking, behaving, and organizing. And because effective leadership is an outcome of organizational structure, CFOs may want to take a more enlightened approach, rethink the role of hierarchy, and change how decisions get made.

A business that’s not optimizing the conditions for its workforce to flourish may be seriously harming its productivity potential. Organizational design is often built around an assumption that there’s a trade-off between employee autonomy and the level of control from the top. On a more basic level, it may simply be easier for management to exert control over people than it is to unleash their potential. Enter: Adopting a modular leadership system. The principle of modularity involves organizing the enterprise around teams. While those components may be designed independently, they are intended to work well as a whole.

With a modular set-up—a power through approach—decision-making is decentralized, with smaller units serving as the fundamental structure of the organization. This helps pave a path for finance executives to effectively lead with empathy and their employees to find a greater purpose within their roles. Dive deeper into why now may be the right time for CFOs to explore a new organization model that balances freedom with unity, reassess their leadership styles, and commit to mobilizing and empowering their team by downloading the full article.