We tend to equate autonomy at work with hands off, total lack of control. Yet workplace autonomy doesn’t mean total anarchy! 🫨 Quite the contrary, autonomy is a key management strategy for improving your employees’ performance and well-being.
According to one Gallup survey, employees are 43% less likely to suffer burnout when they can choose which tasks they carry out on their own—as well as when and how much time they devote to them. What’s more, when teams feel confident and empowered, they are also more creative, more committed, and more efficient!
How do you shift from theory to practice? 🤔Autonomy is built with concrete actions and adapted tools, and that’s what we’ll unveil in this article! 👇 Discover five levers to improve autonomy at work and unleash your employees’ full potential.
1st strategy: set clear, measurable goals
Before embarking on an initiative to improve autonomy in your company, it’s important to know where you’re going.
- What’s your goal?
- What do you wish to achieve?
- How do you envision your team working a few years down the road?
The OKR method (Objectives and Key Results) is ideal for setting clear, measurable goals. It enables each objective to be defined at individual, team, and corporate levels—ensuring overall alignment. Employees are fully aware of their individual expectations and how they fit into the company’s overall vision and strategy.
Also read: Example of Company OKRs: How Did They Do It?
When goals are clearly defined and communicated, employees can take more initiative. No more micromanagement and constant reminders! Goal-based and results-oriented management is far more effective in improving autonomy at work. For example, rather than following every stage of a project with a magnifying glass, managers can define clear objectives and let employees choose the best way to achieve them. You focus on results and show that you trust your teams. The clear result is more autonomous, committed, and efficient employees!
2nd strategy: provide access to appropriate tools and resources
Being autonomous also means having the means to be so! If there’s one word to remember, it’s “tools.” Without the right tools, it can be difficult to become truly autonomous at work.
Today’s digital tools offer a multitude of functionalities that facilitate teamwork. The ideal solution? Opt for an all-in-one tool that enables you to collaborate, communicate, document and store information. In concrete terms, this means integrating:
- Chat for instant exchanges.
- A news feed to access key information in real time and avoid blockages.
- A library of shared resources to help you find the answers you need quickly, without having to call on colleagues or managers.
- OKRs (objectives and key results) to set clear, transparent goals—aligning teams around common priorities.
Talkspirit offers all these features, and much more! Curious to see how it works in practice? Book a free demo now and discover how Talkspirit can boost autonomy and collaboration across your teams! 🚀
3rd strategy: create a company culture based on autonomy and trust
For autonomy at work to flourish, you need a solid foundation. That foundation is your company culture!
There are a number of strategies you can implement to create a company culture in which your teams are empowered because trust reigns and every employee feels responsible. Find out what they are! 👇
Encourage transparent communication and collaboration
On the freeway to autonomy, the key is obstacle-free communication! This all depends on your company culture. For fluid, effective communication among teams, you need to break bad habits. This means no more silos and one-way exchanges typical of traditional, pyramid-style structures.
Every team member needs to feel listened to and ready to share their ideas without hesitation. To achieve this, organize collaboration events like inter-team meetings or cross-functional projects (with or without managers). This will foster collective intelligence and team autonomy.
Above all, don’t forget transparency in your daily exchanges! Research shows that 80% of workers want a better understanding of how decisions are made in their organization. Sharing the latest company goals, news, and achievements can help create a climate of trust. With clear, open communication, your teams will be able to make stress-free, autonomous decisions!
Encourage responsibility
To empower your employees, you need to give them the space they need to make decisions. And to accomplish that, you have to trust them!
Trust is at the heart of autonomy; without it, employees risk not being fully committed to their missions. According to O.C. Tanner’s latest survey, around a third of all employees still see traditional management as a need to “command and control.” So, to reverse this trend, it’s essential to let go a little and adopt a management style that encourages initiative and responsibility. This doesn’t mean slipping entirely off the radar, but rather standing by to support—ready to step in when necessary but not on their backs all the time.
To support this approach, the use of a tool like Holaspirit is particularly beneficial! This software clarifies roles with an organizational chart that shows who does what. This helps your teams stay aware of not only their own roles and responsibilities, but also those of the entire organization.
Promote continual learning
There are many ways to promote continuous improvement: train, self-train, and exchange feedback! Yes, the foremost aim of feedback is to provide tangible, constructive, added value for each employee. Solid coaching and constructive feedback help employees identify their strengths and areas for improvement. This is one of the benefits of continual learning!
Offer your employees routine courses to give them a real boost! This allows them to acquire new skills and gain confidence to take more initiative. When employees feel competent, they don’t hesitate to take on new challenges autonomously. You just hit a double! 👍
4th strategy: create a flexible, fulfilling environment
There’s a close link between autonomy and team well-being. According to APA’s 2024 Work in America survey, one in three workers feel they do not have enough flexibility at work to keep their work life and personal life in balance. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to create a flexible and fulfilling work environment to reinforce autonomy in the workplace!
For example, you can implement hybrid work. Telecommuting and more flexible work hours are powerful levers that allow employees to manage their time according to their individual needs. This shows that you trust them to manage their own responsibilities, thereby fostering a culture of trust—which in turn boosts commitment and motivation.
At the same time, innovative organizational models that promote self-management (like Holacracy, Sociocracy, Teal, etc.) can also help create a more flexible work environment. Contrary to traditional hierarchical models, they offer greater flexibility and autonomy, enabling teams to organize themselves and make decisions more efficiently.
By giving all employees greater autonomy, you can add value to your teams’ work and contribute to their personal development. They can work in conditions that best suit them while working toward that ultimate end goal: performance.
5th strategy: measure autonomy and shift over time
Putting tracking indicators in place is a great way to measure your company’s level of autonomy. You can obtain valuable insights through the following methods:
- Employee surveys. First, ask employees if they feel free to make more decisions on their own in their day-to-day work.
- Performance reviews. Observe to what extent employees manage projects independently. This may indicate to what extent they’re taking initiative with less intervention and supervision.
- Collaboration metrics. Analyze collaboration tools usage with KPIs like the number of contributors to a project or the frequency of exchanges among teams. If a team often collaborates without the help of management, that’s a good sign that it’s autonomous and efficient. The proof is in the stats!
Once you’ve collected this data, take time to analyze it to identify areas for improvement. This will help you adapt all your strategies for greater autonomy.
And don’t forget that expectations and work contexts evolve! So it’s crucial to remain agile and open to change to continue encouraging autonomy at work.
A final word
Autonomy at work means more than simply delegating tasks—it requires a solid culture based on trust and transparency. To make the difference, make sure that every employee has access to objectives, has the right tools at his or her disposal, and feels valued and listened to. The more your employees feel involved, the more they’ll want to take initiative and become invested in their roles!
Bear in mind that implementing these strategies is a long-term process. It’s essential to listen to your team’s feedback and adjust accordingly. By remaining attentive to everyone’s needs, you’ll create an environment where each employee can flourish independently. So, don’t wait any longer—take action!
If you’d like to find out more about how to build this culture of autonomy, download our white paper on new organizational models. In this guide, you’ll discover 8 alternatives to traditional hierarchy that can help you empower your teams and improve organizational transparency. 👇
Access the white paper
In our white paper “The Ultimate Guide to Organizational Models“, you’ll get: a comprehensive overview of innovative organizational models (like Agile, Teal, Holacracy, Constitutional Management, and more), testimonials from pioneer organizations that have successfully adopted it, best practices for choosing, implementing and measuring the effectiveness of our model, as well as digital tools to facilitate the transition.
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