Unleashing Workplace Autonomy
In redefining work routines, leaders should unlock autonomy across the system -- including themselves.
2020 ushered in a new era of uncertainty, and evolving circumstances seem here to stay. As of June 29, less than a quarter of the global population has received a Covid vaccine dose, and the Delta variant threatens to interrupt the hopeful new rhythms of the vaccinated. Moreover, organizations cannot take for granted who will be around for long: 40% of employees plan to leave their roles.
While the pandemic has exacerbated countless inequities, it has afforded newfound work freedoms to knowledge workers, who are reluctant to relinquish them. In fact, 72% of employees prefer a remote or hybrid environment. This finding squares with long-standing research: a greater sense of autonomy increases certainty and reduces stress.
Perhaps counterintuitively, cultivating autonomy starts at the top. Leaders should promote autonomy through six systemic and personal practices:
1. Figure out what your organization really stands for.
Organizations articulate their desired future states through statements like missions, visions, and values. These expressions often include admirable, yet lofty, aspirations, such as “success” or “global perspective” or “being the best.” Uncertainty for teams begins here, and clarity is the antidote. To attain it, they might ask themselves, “What are we building? Why is it important? What do we mean when we say ‘success’?” The first step in navigating ambiguity is eradicating it from the mission statement.
2. Do less, and do it better.
Having a sharpened vision statement is a stepping stone toward a focused strategy. A narrowed set of strategic priorities reduces the frenetic energy that leads to burnout, creating a sustainable pace for the team. Identifying the essentials and weaving them systematically into the fabric of the organization -- including routines, roles, professional development, budget, and operations -- empowers team members to express the vision meaningfully in their work. Soliciting and incorporating feedback from all levels further boosts organizational engagement. This strategy design process and its final product must be simply, clearly, and consistently communicated so that all team members can explain and feel ownership of them.
3. Embrace ambiguity through continuous improvement.
While the organization needs to provide a direction and a map, its teams must use these tools to find the ultimate destination. Uncertainty is inescapable in this journey, and leadership is key to navigating change. It is critical to manage the team’s expectations by repeatedly acknowledging that the work will be complex and will require everyone’s work to find the path. Structures like Plus/Deltas and Consultancy Protocols promote organizational learning and the psychological safety needed for people to feel safe “failing forward.” Empowering teams through clear scopes of work, flexibility in how to resolve challenges, and a culture of iteration creates trust and accountability to one another, rather than responsiveness to authority.
4. Promote autonomy in personal interactions.
Leaders often land in roles by adhering to their organization’s rules of the game, written and unwritten. Political success may require playing by these rules, but forcing others to do the same may come at a cost. When leaders say “Here’s how it is, and it’s time for everyone to get on board,” they’re perpetuating a hierarchical structure antithetical to autonomy. Those in leadership roles must be willing to disrupt a top-down culture in order to create one characterized by collaborative, critical thinking.
Leaders can reinforce a culture of inquiry through the quality of their interactions. Instead of always having the right answer, they should overcome the urge to solve other people’s problems for them, instead leading with questions that place their direct reports in the driver’s seat: “What are you trying to achieve? What is challenging? How can I help?” Ritualizing this approach to one-on-ones builds leadership capacity and autonomy that direct reports can model and cultivate within their own teams.
5. Understand your personal “why.”
What leaders model, their teams will follow. Leaders can’t build autonomy in others until they practice it themselves consistently. When it comes, however, to optimizing for their own happiness, health, or leadership performance, leaders sometimes cede their own power with statements like:
“I don’t know what my goals are.”
“Just tell me what to do.”
“You’re the expert.”
When leaders fly on autopilot, they are more likely to fall prey to unconscious, counterproductive actions. Starting with “why” is therefore an equally important step on the individual level. Leaders should consider the personal mission and values that guide their lives, and evaluate how well their work is aligned. Understanding and acting on the alignment between individual and organizational priorities makes clear which steps lead to fulfillment and to effectiveness. Misalignment between personal vision and daily actions yields inefficient leadership performance and undermines efforts to promote autonomy elsewhere. Reconnecting to one’s sense of purpose is essential for empowering leaders to embrace autonomy fully.
6. Model autonomy through intentional habit creation.
For the leaders who do not yet model autonomous practices consistently, dedicating time and energy to intentional habit creation is a worthwhile and necessary challenge. In order to operate efficiently, our brains make fewer daily conscious choices than we expect: nearly half of our daily actions are performed out of unconscious habit. Maintaining the ability to make consistently good decisions depends on prioritization, emotional awareness, nutrition, exercise, and rest. To build routines in these areas, focus on one at a time. As you layer on each level, draw upon continuous improvement principles by regularly examining which habits serve us well -- and which do not. Aligning actions to vision in this way lets each of us realize a more autonomous life.
Marshall Ganz defines leadership as “taking on the responsibility of creating conditions that enable others to achieve a shared purpose in the face of uncertainty.” With the degree of uncertainty showing no signs of letting up, leadership is especially important in 2021. By engaging the team in meaningful, focused work and offering it control to iterate about how to do it, leaders can create a sense of ownership across their organization. Leaders must reinforce these steps by carefully extending the same degree of intentionality to their daily actions.
