Book excerpt: Empowerment is often confused with delegation and, wrongly, is often seen as a form of power or authority over another person. The authors of The Empowerment Pocketbook prefer to liken empowerment to a licence that is issued only after those concerned have proven their ability and only when the scope and conditions of the activity to which the licence applies are clearly defined. This Pocketbook explains what empowerment is, what can be gained when it is in place and how to put it there and keep it there. It will be helpful to managers, trainers, consultants and all those people who are concerned with getting the best from their workforce. Areas covered include: identifying the need for empowerment, enabling the individual, implementation (nine steps to get empowerment in place) and, finally, monitoring and feedback.