authority or power to someone to do something

the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights

Dictionary.com

I keep hearing about empowerment. I hear the word bandied about quite often. Yet, when I tried to figure out ways to help people become empowered, my google searches kept leading to empowering people in a work environment. They all centered around empowering people by making them leaders…

Does that mean that we are all supposed to be leaders? Because, that could get a little awkward if everyone thinks they are in charge…

So- how do we empower people in a non-work environment?

Or is it only the work environment that people are supposed to be empowered?

What does empowerment mean to you?

What do you think you can do to help empower someone?

We hear the word.

Now let’s figure out how to do it.

43 thoughts on “Em-Pow-Er-Ment”

  2. Resources & tools (educational opportunities/community connections), innovative mentorship, one-one goal setting and accountability, personal positive feedback… I know we hear this often/mostly applied in the work environment but the same set of tools can be applied to simply striving to be better/stronger/more confident as a person, which then ultimately lead to the same characteristics in work if that is your goal.
    It can be one person seeing a need and reaching out to help one other person (I think of something like Big Brothers/Sisters) or community sponsored events that connect people/groups, or corporations/business interested in advancing those who may be potential employees.

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  4. I agree with David. I have always taken it to mean helping people have confidence in themselves to be the best they can be, and if you’re in a leadership role then both helping them to believe in themselves and also giving them the tools and space (ie, let them get on with it in their own way) they need to succeed.

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      1. Sorry, I don’t get that. I would hope that anyone in any role – parent, teacher, friend, supervisor, family member – with some degree of empathy would treat others that way. Try to instil confidence where it seems lacking and provide encouragement to rise to a challenge without micromanaging. Let people fail and learn from their mistakes, help them pick up the pieces and try again, providing the same encouragement and space to succeed on their own. Empowering them to find their best selves.

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      2. Yet…if people treated others that way, we’d all be empowered. I read the rules that Forbes laid out for empowering employees…five of the six were rules I used as a parent…yet…I got kicked in many quarters for my approach to parenting…most parents I see do the exact opposite of empowering…as evidenced by some of what kids do…

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  5. I just googled empowerment and ran across this:
    “How do you show empowerment?
    8 Ways to Feel More Empowered in Your Life
    Take Action and Finish Something.
    Challenge the Negative Thoughts.
    Take Care of Yourself.
    Connect with Others.
    Get Clear on What You Want.
    Practice Gratitude.
    Do Something You Love.”

    8 Ways To Feel More Empowered In Your Life | Life Purpose …www.lifepurposeinstitute.com ›

    I think this is an “empowered” list of things to do. 🙂

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  7. The reality is most of us are powerLESS over our situations and we need to learn to work with what we are given and find joy and contentment in that acceptance of our current reality until we get that miracle we need. The true power is in surrendering to God’s will for your life, choosing to serve Him, and then seeing where He leads you.

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  8. To me it means empowering me to not let fear rule my life. For me, that’s not just a covid thing. I have a problem with self esteem and I tend to let fear rule me sometimes.

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  9. When I think of empowerment I think of a statement one of my teachers said once when I was debating on furthering my degree. “Knowledge is empowering, no one can take that away from you”. That statement has stuck with me and it is so true and I still ponder on it!!

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  11. Hmmmm. A fun question, LA. On empowerment and leadership, it depends on how we define leadership. If leadership is considered an act, or actions, someone takes to lead their life, the best way they know how, and are empowered in the pursuit of their dreams, we can say they are empowered. Feeling and being empowered, for me, is about living a full life, feeling alive, being in action, and pursuing my dreams. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s super difficult. Yet, that’s what living an empowered life is all about. It’s not supposed to be easy. Phew. Tangent alert. Anyway, nice post, LA.

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  12. Empowering people by making them leaders at work always smacks of ‘lets get more work out of you for the same pay’ to me.

    For me it means feeling that ‘you can do’ whatever it is you set your mind to

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  13. To me empowerment is when someone learns to be selfless and shares their knowledge with others. Maybe, it is concerned a leadership trait but I have known many leaders who do not know empowerment or to inspire selfless service and knowledge upon others. Empowerment also must contain the ability to listen.

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  14. It’s not just work related. I think empowerment refers to amplifying someone’s voice or showing someone how to amplify her/his own voice. For example, when I created the Daddy book, I sought out only women authors. Most of them were not published yet. Since then, one author has written her own book; another one is showing a publishing company how to host events for writers; another has used the book for speaking engagements. From my perspective, each person has been empowered in different ways, but not necessarily in a leadership way.

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  15. Empowerment can apply to every area of life. It depends on where each person has need of it. For instance, one person might need to start giving herself permission to say no. That’s empowerment. For another person it might be dismissing what others see as obstacles to get ahead at work. That’s empowerment. And it might even apply to someone who is already a leader. When that person stops believing they’re the only one who can handle something. It could be empowering to delegate. So many ways we could use empowerment!

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  17. Everybody wants “empowerment”. Unfortunately it often means the power to push other people out of the way or shout other people down. Call it ambition or selfishness and it seems a lot less laudable. A lot of what people have mention seems to be about confidence, and my lack of confidence is down to me. If I call it empowerment I can blame the lack on somebody else, which is much easier…

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  18. I go with mentoring. One of these days, especially now that I’m back in So Cal, I want to work with a local group that assists kids aging out of foster care to “successfully” transition to “adulthood”.

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