It’s important to learn how to empower others. Conflict hits us all at different times in our lives and sometimes it’s unexpected. When we think about being the best version of ourselves it’s vital to be able to walk away from a situation feeling accomplished or empowered. Our approach and ability to adapt are everything when it comes to self-empowerment.
What about the other person? When we are being self-critical, we must consider the other person or people involved. If we don’t, we don’t there is the potential to harm them. We must consider how our actions are impacting those around us. Having both parties walk away feeling empowered is hard work. It’s even harder work if the other person isn’t meeting us halfway. But our hard work pays off especially if we are trying to become a better person. The challenges that others bring us only make our character stronger.
Becoming the best version of us takes thinking and acting self-critically. My responsibility to you is to take responsibility for myself. The only responsibility I have to you is to be responsible for me in every situation. This is a huge task. This means being emotionally regulated and allowing our critical thinking to dictate our decisions and actions. It means being willing to give up everything and expecting nothing in return (humility, being humble). Furthermore, it also means we are going to have to be vulnerable and sometimes even suffer. I assure you it’s worth it. The result is personal growth.
Empowering others helps us make a shift in our thinking and our lives. It gives us a piece of mind that we did what we could do with the awareness, mindfulness, and clarity that we had to help and serve. The question becomes how do we get to this deeper level of thinking and acting and then apply it to our lives? The answer is profound, but some things can help.
Consider the Positive Attributes the Person Has.
There may be people in our life that are extremely hard to get along with, care for them anyways. We don’t know what a person has been through, and we just need to accept they have troubles too. Everyone has something positive about them and if you don’t believe that look harder. Consider they are a mother, father, daughter, or son to someone. If you believe in God believe he put them on this earth for a purpose. Whatever you come up with challenge yourself to find something positive everyone has some type of positive characteristic that they contribute.
Tactfully Communicate with Purpose
It’s important to learn to read the situation. When we can read or get a feel for the situation, we can begin to adjust our helping or servant approach. I’m not going to give any fluff sometimes this is difficult because we allow our values and beliefs to dictate our actions and forget to be mindful of the possibility that we might be wrong. Human behavior isn’t an exact science. It’s not as easy as one plus one equals two. Sometimes behaviors are very unpredictable, and we have to roll with the resistance others bring. That’s if we are trying to not harm others. Tactful in your thinking, acting, and even body language. The conditions we create dictate whether the outcome is helpful or hurtful.
We Must Seek Clarity
If we want everyone to feel empowered one of our responsibilities in this process is to seek clarity. Clarity builds competence which helps develop a meaningful relationship (gives depth to the relationship). Once you establish competence from clarity you begin to truly gain some compassion for the person and the situation that is at hand. If you choose not to seek clarity you most likely impose your values and beliefs on the situation, and this does harm. It also doesn’t help others feel empowered. So always continue to seek clarity.
Demonstrate Flexibility
Another profound piece of this puzzle of empowerment is flexibility. Profound in the sense it may not be your average version of flexibility. Think of yourself as a facilitator of help or service to others. We have a duty, an obligation to others to keep the peace or the balance, and sometimes this balance may not feel equal. When becoming the best version of yourself you may have to give more than you get. Again, you may have to be willing to give up everything and expect nothing in return in certain situations (I encourage you to practice this concept as much as you can).
Just keep in mind that life is a profound learning experience there is always something that we can gain from these experiences and even more to gain if you can create the condition of flexibility (more wisdom, knowledge, stronger sense of self, and deeper understanding to name a few).
It Should Never Come to Flexing our Power
As humans, we can always ball our fists up and fight and there are times in our lives when it’s important to make noise against injustices. For the bulk of our lives there is typically a different solution a much calmer, balanced and well-thought-out solution. The solution may not always be completely clear but there are other ways. The point is we don’t have to use our authority or power over others in a way that is destructive or hurtful. Empowerment is a partnership. Lastly, empowerment is the essence of working “with” a person not “to,” “at” or “for” a person (once again another complex concept)
Convey Confidence They Can Succeed
People are resilient beings. Unless the interaction your having in the moment is the most difficult situation a person has ever been through in their live, they are going to thrive. It’s okay to convey this. and you can do this without giving false hope. Think of yourself as a cheerleader if you have to. Keep the optimism and hope a live that a person is going to succeed.
Create Opportunities for Success
We can come closer to balance when we focus on the Foundations of Thinking Deeply Self-Critically which are Instilling Hope, Clarity, Creating Conditions, and Mindfulness. Having balance in our lives will bring us closer to the best version of ourselves and it will have a positive impact on those in our lives in ways we never thought possible. By serving other we should never give all the answers. People need to self-explore. Self-exploration is how we grow. Furthermore, one or our greatest roles when serving other is creating opportunities for people to be successful. Creating opportunities will lead to empowerment and personal growth or accomplishment.
Conclusion
Empowering people can be tough work but there are so many benefits that can come for it. We must allow ourselves to gain deeper understanding of the importance of this concept if we truly want to see our personal growth. Empowering people is a delicate application of our personal skill set in action with other. Lastly, we should always practice empowering others in our lives. It makes for a much better life.
If you like what you have read, check out other articles on the website ThinkingDeeplySelf-Critically.com the site is designed to give us tools and techniques to help us become the best version of ourselves. There are four main categories on the site. The Foundation, Our Responsibility to Us, Our Responsibility to Others and Facilitating Crisis. We can also be found on Pinterest.
The following is a Ted Talk over Empowering Others it paints a pretty good picture of how we should treat other people in our lives. Hope you enjoy!
