When Responsibility Is a Dirty Word, Someone Lacks Authority

Everyone likes authority. Achievers like responsibility. My brief "big company" experience introduced me to the world of responsibility without authority. It's not a comfortable place to be. Yet people are put there routinely. 

Responsibility without authority is the work of either a manipulator of people or an unenlightened delegator. It is patently unfair because the person with the delegated responsibility absorbs the blame–while the one with the authority takes the credit. The employee is in a no-win situation. 

The first rule of delegation is–never assign responsibility without providing at least equal authority. Every empowered employee in America shares at least one common trait–he or she always has at least as much authority to act as responsibility to perform. 

Associates who care about their work and are good at what they do enrich my entrepreneurial life. I try to delegate to these future leaders in a way that is ethical, fair, and thoughtful. Legitimate control must accompany responsibility. When it doesn't, everyone loses.