When Sharin first set foot in the palm oil mill at Johor, the air was thick with tension. The machines roared as usual, but beneath the steady hum of operations, he sensed unease among his team. Productivity was inconsistent, supervisors often clashed with operators, and decisions always seemed to bottleneck at the top.
As the new mill manager, Sharin could have tightened control and micromanaged every detail. Instead, he chose a different path—delegation and empowerment.
Step 1: Understanding the Roots
Sharin spent his first weeks listening more than directing. He joined his engineers during boiler inspections, ate lunch with operators at the canteen, and quietly observed morning briefings. Through conversations, he realized two main issues:
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Supervisors were overloaded with tasks that could have been delegated.
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Staff lacked confidence to take initiative because past managers often made all decisions themselves.
Step 2: Practicing Delegation
To ease the burden, Sharin began with small, deliberate acts of delegation.
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He assigned report writing to junior engineers but reviewed their drafts together, teaching them what to look out for.
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He let shift supervisors handle daily work scheduling, giving them authority to manage manpower allocation.
By clearly defining expectations and ensuring skill-task alignment, his team started to feel trusted. Errors still happened, but Sharin treated them as learning opportunities, not punishments.
Step 3: Empowering for Growth
Delegation alone was not enough. Sharin wanted his team to own their roles. He initiated empowerment by:
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Allowing engineers to decide on maintenance priorities within their budgets.
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Giving safety officers full authority to stop operations if they identified hazards, without waiting for managerial approval.
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Setting up monthly “innovation circles” where operators could propose ideas for efficiency improvements.
This shift was not immediate—many were hesitant at first, fearful of blame. But with Sharin’s encouragement and consistent support, confidence slowly grew.
Step 4: Transformation in Culture
Within months, the mill began to change:
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Operators became more engaged, contributing ideas that reduced downtime.
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Supervisors felt less stressed and more focused on leading their teams.
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Engineers developed leadership skills by managing projects independently.
The once-fragmented team was now a collaborative unit, each member understanding that they were not just employees but stakeholders in the mill’s success.
Lesson from Sharin
Sharin’s leadership journey in Johor showed a simple truth:
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Delegation spreads the workload.
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Empowerment spreads ownership.
By blending the two, he didn’t just fix management problems—he built a culture of trust, confidence, and innovation.
In time, the mill’s performance exceeded expectations, but more importantly, his team grew into a group of capable, empowered leaders, ready to take on greater responsibilities.
✨ Moral of the story:
A leader’s true success is not measured by how much he controls, but by how much he enables others to grow.
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