Empowering Managers One Vision at a Time

One of the things I loved about working in hospitality was the meal program. Hotels provided an employee cafeteria for staff meals, and as a single woman who worked long hours, I thoroughly enjoyed this benefit. I didn’t have to cook. I didn’t have to wash dishes. I didn’t have to make a meal plan. The kitchen staff prepared nutritious meals for the employees. 

One day, after eating lunch, as I walked the hallways greeting employees, I had a brilliant brainstorm (I had many of these moments). The employee meal benefit was superb; the cafeteria where employees ate was not. HR oversaw the cafeteria because it was an employee benefit, yet it was dreary. The walls were beige. The linoleum floor was scuffed and dull. The tables had seen better days. The lighting was so poor that employees couldn’t see what they were eating. The kitchen spent so much time preparing delicious meals and the area where we ate needed to match that quality.

My vision: spruce up the employee cafeteria and provide a space where people enjoyed their meals and shared time with each other. I knew the HR team (an HR Manager and an HR coordinator) would love this project. I walked into the office and added this project to the agenda for our next meeting. It was going to be so much fun!

On the morning of the meeting, I reread my notes and prepared the talking points for our HR meeting.

“I’m excited to tell you about my new idea. I think it’ll be a lot of fun and energize the basement. You can be the judge, though. We should spruce up the employee cafeteria. Redecorate it. Change the lighting. Give it a fun name. What do you think?”, I asked. 

“Oh yeah!” Daphne, the HR Manager, exclaimed. “That sounds like fun!”

“What can we do to help?”, Kerry the HR Coordinator asked.

“I want you to come up with a plan for what you would like to do with the cafeteria. Take some time, think about how you envision the space, and let’s regroup tomorrow,”. 

We finished the meeting and went back to our respective offices. A few hours later I walked past Kerry’s office, and she was staring at her computer with a puzzled look on her face. I asked her what was going through her head. 

“Nothing”, she dully replied.

“Ok, I’m here to help and answer any questions you have,” I reminded her as I went back to my office. 

Later, I heard a quiet knock on my door and Daphne sheepishly pushed the door open. “Anne, I’m not quite sure of the direction we’re headed with this cafeteria project. I understand the vision, but your directions are vague. Do we have a budget? What are the exact parameters of this project? How far can we take it? We need more details,” she said.

I asked Kerry if she felt the same. 

“Yes,” was her reply. 

I was crestfallen. I thought I was being the best boss and giving them a fun project when it wasn’t. They weren’t enjoying the work.

I realized then that I needed to change the way I communicate with my team. Not everyone liked to communicate the way I did. Not everyone liked to be given free rein to figure things out. Some people needed more guidance, in order to unleash their brilliance. This was not an easy lesson to learn. My short-sightedness set us back. I apologized, thought more about the project: what could be done, what the budget would be, who else should be involved, what the timeline would be, and how we could accomplish it as a team. The final instruction to them was to be creative, let their ideas flow, and see where they go. Then, we would edit and revise their plans to fit within the budget and other constraints.

I knew empowering the team was important to the success of the business and their professional development; I changed the way I communicate after that experience with the HR team.

The Lesson:

Create the vision. This part I got right. People need to know the why behind the project, not just the task list. But vision alone doesn’t go far. You need the roadmap to success.

Set expectations. Before anyone starts, they need to know what the result looks like, what the timeline is, and what constraints they're working within. Budget, deadlines, who else needs to sign off. Skipping this was my downfall, and we lost time because of it.

Provide training. If your team hasn't done something like this before, don't assume they'll figure it out. Give them the tools, the resources, or a tutorial that gets them moving in the right direction.

Allow room for learning curves and making mistakes. Even with expectations and training, people are going to stumble. Making mistakes isn’t failure. It’s how we learn. Build in the time and patience for that.

Check in and follow up. Don't lock yourself in your office when you set your team free. Regular check-ins let you catch problems early and give your team a chance to ask questions before small confusion turns into three hours of staring at a screen.

Don't micromanage. Checking in isn't the same as hovering. There's a real difference between "how's it going, what do you need" and reviewing every decision before it's made. Trust is crucial to your team’s success. Trust your employees to get the work done. They’ll trust you to provide the right guidance.

Be open and available for questions. Your team needs to know that asking for help isn't a sign of weakness or something you'll hold against them. Make it easy for them to come to you.

Redirect if necessary. Sometimes a project drifts off course, and that's fine. Your job is to notice and gently steer it back, not to let it fail quietly because you didn't want to interfere.

That break room got its makeover: colorful walls, better lighting, tables where people wanted to sit and talk. We even had a contest for the employees to submit their ideas for the mural and hired a local painter to paint it. My management style got a makeover, too. I stopped handing my team a vision and walking away. Now I set clear expectations, and we accomplish the vision together.