Empowerment Begins Where Compliance Ends

People are not a resource; they are the result.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the wild lately. On the ground. Watching, listening, asking.

Retail floors, hospitality counters, check-out lines.
The places where brands are either built or broken in real time.

And what I keep seeing out there has pushed me to start writing these.

Not to throw shade.
Not to dunk on anyone.

But to wake us up from the trance.

Because I believe we can do better. For our customers, yes. But more importantly, for the people serving them every single day, the frontline teams who carry the weight of our reputations and results.

It’s time we stop auditing our people like problems to fix.
And start auditing the systems holding them back.

Too many leaders are obsessed with compliance.
“Did you follow the policy?”
“Did you do it the right way?”

But how often do we pause to ask:

What system are we reinforcing that is shaking the meaning out of their work?
When’s the last time we let frontline employees shape how they grow, not just how they obey?
Where is my team stuck in a compliance-based system?

Here’s a recent example that hit me.

I was grocery shopping, and like always, the cashier asked:
“Paper or plastic?”

My response: Paper.

But then the script broke.

Cashier: “I’m sorry, you have chicken, so I have to put that in plastic.”
Me: “That’s a policy?”
Cashier: “Yes, all meat has to go in plastic. It can leak.”
Me: “Can I just not have a bag?”
Cashier: “Nope. It could leak on other items and get you sick.”
Me: “So I can’t leave the store unless that chicken is in plastic?”
Cashier: “Right. I don’t want to get in trouble.”

She wasn’t rude or difficult. She was doing what she’d been trained to do.
Company policy over customer preference.

That is frontline work stripped of empowerment, curiosity, and meaning.

Leaders, audit yourselves.

If you operate at any level where your products or services end with a human experience, this is for you.

When’s the last time you showed up without an agenda, without the clipboard, without a scheduled visit, and just tuned in?

When’s the last time you were truly curious about what it feels like to work for you?

Here’s a challenge.

Get on the ground.
And if your own house is too familiar, step outside it.

Find something you usually outsource to delivery.
Pick it up in person.
Watch what happens. Don’t analyze. Just observe.

Ask yourself:

• Did I experience connection or transaction?

• Is this behavior coming from a person or a system?

• What norms are showing up and which ones need to change?

Because nothing works on every guest, every time.
Don’t build your culture around those exceptions.
Look at the pattern. Look at the habit. Look at the default.

And then ask yourself:
How will I respond with the team I lead and the people I serve?

I’m not writing this because I have the perfect answers.
I’m writing it because I want to find better ones.
And I want to work with the kind of people willing to break it up and build something stronger.