P a g e | 26
For some time now, Marvin had been thinking of his problems on the company he was working at, or for that matter, he was managing. What he failed to see was the company also has its problems on him – that he is turning out to be an ineffective leader. He had taken over leadership there for over a year already, or should I say, for over a year only, and yet his effectiveness as a leader is already not enough for the maintenance, if not progress, of the company. But, at least, in all fairness to him, he cared enough to reflect on the matters that might lead to the company’s failure. Again, only it was hard for him to accept the fact that change should start on him before the rest of the company changes.
This made him ponder for quite a while. And then he came up with a solution, one that would make them leaner and meaner, one that he ‘thought’ was helpful – empowerment. And since he believed that everyone needs to be empowered, he made them, not certain if it was at all for the best of the company. Well, for nine months, it seems that it was not even close to being good; especially that empowerment was merely a word to those supposed-to-be-empowered, and nothing more.
Desperate, he sought help from Sandy, the so-called “Empowering Manager.” At
first he was hesitant because he found out that what he once thought as a “he” is really a “she.” It’s as if his self-esteem decreased since he was asking for a help from a lady. But
eventually, he had accepted the truth that he really needed advice. The conversation went through and the most interesting part was how Sandy defined empo