Autonomy: how to develop it among your employees?
Developing the autonomy of employees is a major challenge today for large groups.
Last year, in its 10th edition of the Quality of Life at Work barometer, Malakoff Médéric indicated that for nearly 86% of employees, the degree of autonomy granted in companies was not sufficient.
However, the feeling of autonomy at work promotes trust and unleashes the creativity of employees. It is therefore urgent for large groups to look into the subject. Let's see together what are the 4 stages of autonomy as defined by Eric Berne, as well as the management styles to adopt to support talent at each of these stages.
The autonomy of employees: a major challenge for companies
From Greek” autos ”, which means “self” and” Nomos ” which means “law, rule”, etymologically, to be autonomous means: follow your own rules. Until recently, in companies, the rules were rather dictated by top management, in a vertical system that gave little room for the real development of autonomy among employees.
Today, younger generations are joining organizations in force, with the firm intention of defend their ideas as well to have an impact very quickly.
To remain attractive and competitive, large groups must therefore put in place the conditions for autonomy.
However, it does not happen by itself. It is a process that requires time and involvement on the part of all stakeholders (especially managers), and sometimes to be accompanied by professional coaches. Since 2003, Talentis has been leader in supporting managerial transformations.
Through leadership seminars, team seminars and individual coaching in particular, we work with managers, employees and managers on the skills development who are and will be expected in business. Autonomy is one of them.
The 4 stages of autonomy: what management style should you adopt for each of them?
As Eric Berne theorized, regardless of the activity you carry out, you go through 4 levels of autonomy before reaching the stage of interdependence, which corresponds to the stage of the perfectly autonomous individual.
Note that it is possible to stay in the first stage of autonomy for a very long time. This may depend on corporate culture, context, management...
1st stage: addiction
First of all, it should be noted that the characteristics described for each stage of autonomy are postures that are found more or less markedly depending on the individual. At this stage, the employee is more in a listening position: “I need others to act”.
Regardless of the skill level, every talent will go through this stage where they will ask themselves what is expected of them.
He does not give much opinion, seeks to get the opinion of others.
The individual discovers how their new team works, listens to advice and obeys. He does what he is told to do. It expresses the need for understand, to be guided And to be supported.
Eric Berne describes this stadium as being that of the “Doormat”.
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What management style should I adopt? Advice from Valérie Rocoplan, CEO of Talentis and professional coach:
” Encouraging, formative, protective and reassuring, these are the 4 adjectives that best characterize the management style corresponding to this first stage of autonomy. The manager will have to on a daily basis monitor the employee's progress and encourage them. The importance of positive feedback, whether unconditional (“you are a competent person”) or conditional (“you did a good job”), is essential. The objective: Motivate the collaborator recognizing each of its progress and contributions.
2nd stage: counter-dependence
If one were to find a parallel with child development, one would almost speak here of a “adolescent crisis”.
After a certain period of time, the employee will enter into “counter-dependence”. He will feel ambivalence in wanting to be independent, while being unable to really be independent. Feeling the need to Building up in opposition, the latter goes criticize decisions without offering alternatives for building solutions. Attention, while this step may seem undesirable in business, let's not forget that autonomy is a cycle. This stage is certainly not very pleasant for the employee and his environment, but it is necessary.
Eric Berne is talking about the “Hedgehog” stadium here.
What management style should I adopt? Advice from Valérie Rocoplan, CEO of Talentis and professional coach:
” The objective for the manager will be to Supercharge the collaborator. Stay tuned, yes, but Be firm to make it progress. The Reframing feedback will find all its usefulness.
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The manager can ask the person to comment on their action so that they can find areas of development together. The challenge will be to find the The right balance between listening to the proposals and questioning of the collaborator, while Now the frame. ”
3rd step: independence
That's it, the collaborator has developed enough autonomy to do without the systematic support of more experienced people.
The problem is that at this stage, his ego is sometimes very strengthened, which leads him to show himself. Unwilling to collaborate thinking in particular that the other elements would bring him little added value. The individual in the independence stage often has tendency to “play personal”.
Eric Berne is talking about “Polisson” here.
What management style should I adopt? Advice from Valérie Rocoplan, CEO of Talentis and professional coach:
” The aim for the manager is to show that isolation creates inefficiency The procedure to follow: transfer useful information from the environment to him show that he has every interest in relying more on the key skills and talents present within the team.
4th step: interdependence
It's the autonomy stage. The collaborator understands that he cannot act effectively without others. Responsible, his actions are totally part of the group. The collective now takes precedence over the individual. A driving member of the team, the individual at the stage of interdependence is at ease in the various interactions during which he demonstrates relational and situational intelligence.
What management style should I adopt? Advice from Valérie Rocoplan, CEO of Talentis and professional coach:
“Adopt the “manager-coach” posture. This means helping the person to think strategically. How? En stimulating his search for solutions and by challenging his method. To motivate employees at the stage of interdependence over time, there is nothing like exposing them to different contacts to Encourage them to create and maintain relationships. ”According to Eric Berne, we are talking about the “Unison” stadium here.
Achieving autonomy within teams is a powerful performance driver for organizations. It is a process that can be long but can be long-term if accompanied by a professional coach. In particular, the latter will work with the manager on the management style best suited to each stage of autonomy.
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