Bureaucracy: Who’s Responsible for the Red Tape?

When we think of power, we almost always think about people at the top of the food chain inflicting their power on others, and not the powerless employees on the front lines. When the Mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner, resigned over allegations of sexually harassing multiple women, the City was brought to a standstill because of Filner’s micromanagement style of leadership. Many business and community leaders said it was almost impossible to get any business done. With no one on the front lines or even leaders in departments willing to make a decision that might stir Filner’s temper and retaliatory mean spirited actions, the City Government took bureaucracy to a whole new level.

So, what causes bureaucracies?

1. Powerless people create artificial power. This last weekend, I asked a hotel clerk in Paso Robles if she could print out my boarding pass. A simple task I thought until she told me that the manager does not allow the front desk to have internet access and all communication would need to be channeled to the manager who … was not on site at the time. That’s front line power that is almost impossible to overcome at the moment of need.
2. Important information stays at the top of the organization. Bureaucracies believe that people with too much information can become dangerous.
3. A lack of empowerment. Since people might make a bad decision, bureaucracies assume that it’s better to take the decision making power away from them and channel the decision up the ladder for some true expertise. In Paso Robles, it appears it is a much better use of the Manager’s time to print out Boarding passes than allow team members to do it at the front desk.
4. No encouragement for learning and growing. Bureaucracies are great for saying, “Why should we train our employees? Most likely, they will be trained and then take their new knowledge to another employer.” That is a possibility. Another possibility is that the organization doesn’t encourage their people to learn and grow and fails to provide any training or learning opportunities. This kind of culture is unattractive to ambitious and empowered employees, but is very attractive to complacent, unmotivated employees who aren’t interested in learning and growing.
5. A focus on one-way communication. Managers of bureaucracies see less need for a two way dialogue because they believe they have the information and the answers.
6. Strong policies, rules, procedures and processes that achieve identical outcomes. According to bureaucratic organizations, employees cannot be relied upon to create the solutions to unique customer needs.
7. Slow change. The more layers of management, the greater the chances the decisions will take a long time to be made and change will be slow to implement.
8. An unhealthy adherence to the rules. Bureaucracies know that rules are meant to be followed. When the policies and procedures are not followed, people need to be coached, counseled, trained, and if that does not work, write them up 50 times to comply with the policy and then fire them.

What’s the opposite of a bureaucracy? An empowered workforce.

Now that we know what creates bureaucracy, let’s explore what creates an empowered workforce.

Education: Great leaders educate their people well so they can have the knowledge to make decisions and achieve positive outcomes.

Resources: They give their team members the resources they need to provide extraordinary service to customers.

Delegate: Great leaders know the importance of delegating responsibilities to the lowest possible level. In doing so, you demonstrate your belief in your team members and free up your time to take on more strategic, higher valued responsibilities. With the Paso Robles guest relations manager as the only one who could print out a boarding pass, it’s no wonder that the overall hotel experience was mediocre at best.

Solutions focused: Empowered organizations focus their employees on achieving excellent outcomes that create outstanding customer satisfaction.

Two way conversations: They know that the people on the front lines are the ones who have the most frequent feedback from customers. Leaders in empowered organizations listen to and take action on the recommendations from the people at the bottom of the organizational chart.

Accountability: If you are going to provide your team members with education, resources and the ability to make decisions and take action, then you need to hold team members accountable for the results achieved.

Trust: To empower the members of your team, you need to trust that your team members will make the right decision and take the best possible action.

Leaders have two choices: holding on to false power or gaining their power, effectiveness and influence by distributing real power. Which will it be?