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Part Three · Create Empowerment

Calibrated Authority: Right Level Right Time

Consistency is a virtue in values. In management style, it is often a failure of diagnosis.

In brief

Consistency is a virtue in values. In management style, it is often a failure of diagnosis. The capability and engagement framework matches the leadership response to where each person actually is: Clarify, Guide, Engage or Empower.

What the chapter covers

  • Style Is Not Strategy
  • The Capability and Engagement Framework
  • Delegation Precision
  • The Invisible Control Problem
  • Recalibrating as Conditions Change

Treating everyone the same is fair only when everyone is starting from the same place. In a team with different capabilities and engagement levels, uniform treatment produces uniform inequity.

The capability and engagement framework

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Questions for your team

  1. Where do we treat everyone the same when people start from different places?
  2. Is anyone over-directed on work they already do well, or under-supported on work that is new?
  3. When authority is delegated here, are the outcome, decision rights, risk tolerance, escalation threshold and review cadence clear?
  4. What invisible controls remain after authority has been granted?

Field Guide Tool #15

The Leadership Response Diagnostic

Assesses each team member on the capability and engagement framework, places them in the appropriate quadrant, and confirms the five delegation precision elements.

Best used quarterly and whenever a team member’s performance changes.

Download Tool #15 (PDF)

Reading as a team?

This chapter is part of Session 5 of the Team Reading Guide.

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