Mangement Cousel Newsletter: Issue 1
Empowered by ZAPP!

An inexpensive book, ZAPP! has been on the business book best seller list for a few years. It explores, through a fable, the process of empowerment.

When you get zapped you get empowered, and when you get sapped you are disempowered. The tale demonstrates the impacts on an organization in each case.

ZAPP! is quick to read and provides "Joe Mode's Notebook" pages throughout the book to summarize key learning points.
To empower someone you must:
1. maintain their self-esteem
2. listen to them and respond with empathy
3. ask for their help in solving problems.

And, very importantly, you must offer help without taking responsibility away from them.

The book also examines the factors that determine what influences how empowered a person will be:
- the person's immediate boss
- the other people who affect the person's job
- higher management
- the organization and systems.

In addition empowerment must also begin with the individual's own beliefs and attitudes.