In the years when I did not have the idea to focus on people in my business life, while working as a risk expert in the financial sector, I experienced a situation that I would later think about. The work we did was the kind of job in which the outcomes containing important details were passed through a series of approvals according to the level of authority. Careful control was required to get it right, and that was the responsibility of everyone in the approval chain.
Although I am the same me, there were noticeable differences in my business results between the two successive executives I worked with. First, it had a style that we call "micro-management" today. When I sent my work for approval, he was always sending it back with a change or correction request. These changes were not significant enough to affect the outcome of the business, but it was because my manager aimed for excellence. I started to make mistakes in the works I sent, and to overlook it. It was as if the more we tried to be faultless, the worse the situation got.
During a restructuring in our department, managers and all teams changed. With the new manager who coincided with me, I started to experience this in the similar approval process: Every job I sent was quickly approved and going to the top management in large amounts. Nothing I sent for approval would not come back to me unless it was a very important requirement. I panicked a little first. This manager was obviously more likely to get the job done without getting distracted by too much fine detail. If there was something important overlooked, especially if it was noticed in senior management approval, I would be just as much a problem for me!
This moment of awareness, I know today, transformed me. That is the moment when I take full responsibility for my work. I was a responsible person before, but I had a hard time imitating someone else's point of view and my work seemed to be off. There was even an indifference in knowing that it would not be enough anyway. However, now I felt the true ownership of the work that emerged with its mistake and merit. There is hardly any other way for an adult to own their job. My second manager has been mentioned in my memories as one of the people with leadership qualities and who I still respectfully remember today. Over time, as I got to know him, I realized that he showed his trust in us with his actions and did it from the very beginning. In return, I remember that although we have different personalities, we all cling to the work as a team, successfully accomplishing the work even in difficult times, and that we do not complain when overtime is required.
In one of the job changes, which was an important turning point in my career, I experienced the absence of any other knowledgeable or authorized person in the institution that I am responsible for. I, who have been accustomed for years to come to a conclusion with the chain of approval for everything I can, experienced a performance explosion when I became the sole authority. My business results have improved significantly, as well as my motivation.
All these comparisons, before and after stories point to the same concept: autonomy. There are other benefits that we adults want to get other than making money, which keeps them satisfied with the work they do and produce. These are actually linked to our personal values. For example, if success is an important asset to us, here we are looking for success. (Someone who does not care much about this can easily overcome the times of failure at work.) If we value the concept of prestige, we want the job to be the kind that gives us prestige, and when this is not the case, we may lose our motivation. Autonomy is one of them. Being independent while doing our job feeds us and our business. According to research, autonomy has a great impact on both employee well-being and job satisfaction. Although it does not directly affect job performance alone, it indirectly affects job performance due to its positive effects on satisfaction, motivation and health, and its stress-reducing effect.
We can define autonomy as follows: Having conditions that allow us to do a job in the best way possible. This also means taking initiative in how to get the job done. In the opposite case, there is a situation like not being satisfied with the result of the work and defining how the job should be done in fine detail or controlling every step. This leads to a decrease in employees' self-confidence and motivation and indirectly their performance in the long run. It can cause stress, up to health problems.
Providing autonomy does not mean that there are no rules at all, because we all do our work by the rules.
