Who Can Empower Others

History shows that a group of empowered people can achieve something which is beyond imagination, provided they are united by a common end objective. Empowerment is meaningless if the team is not committed to a common end objective that holds the whole team together, irrespective of role, irrespective of individual skill set, irrespective of designation, and irrespective of seniority. Robert Oppenheimer is a shining example of empowering a hugely distributed team, working on a frighteningly tight schedule, working in a completely new & unknown domain, like creating the 1st Atom Bomb.

One can empower a team if and only if that person is accepted as the team's undisputed leader, and his/her authority is well-accepted by everybody on the team. But like many other words, “Empowerment” has also become overused, misused, diluted, and maybe a word with a great degree of pompousness. 

The story goes that, one day just before a test match,  Saurav Ganguly told Sehwag..."You are going to be the opener for the team along with Sachin. I expect you to make a solid foundation for the team. And for that, you have to be the opener, you can’t play at #6 of the batting order and make a solid foundation”.  You can watch it here for about 1 Min. {You may like to have Engish Closed Caption=ON}  When Dada told this to Sehwag, Sehwag was scared and nervous. Dada could empower him because Dada was in a position to empower him. We all know the outcome of Sehwag becoming the opener for the team. One of the most destructive batsmen produced by India.

When thousands of people in the stadium shout and cheer for Sehwag, they encourage Sehwag. But by no means they are empowering Sehwag. They simply are not in a position to empower Sehwag or any player.  Do they encourage players? certainly Yes. 

So, I find it a bit bizarre & laughable when someone with 3-4 years experience undergoes some 2-3 days of training, gets himself stamped as a MASTER, and starts telling others that now it is his responsibility to EMPOWER his team members.