How to Repower Your Self-Empowerment

In the spirit of Women’s History Month and reflecting back on those who have made their mark on history in recent years, “empowered” is a trait that is often used when describing these remarkable women.

But what does empowerment mean, anyway? According to Merriam Webster: 

em·​pow·​er·​ment | \ im-ˈpau̇(-ə)r-mənt  \

1: the act or action of empowering someone or something : the granting of the power, right, or authority to perform various acts or duties

2: the state of being empowered to do something : the power, right, or authority to do something

In other words, being empowered means knowing what you want, and why you want it. It means taking control and responsibility for your own life and career. It also means standing up to societal norms, going against the status quo, and aligning with your value system.

It’s a word that is used a lot when assessing career satisfaction, especially in the era of the Great Resignation – do you, as an employee, feel empowered in your current workplace? If the answer is “no”, there are a number of ways to help.

But before we delve into being more empowered, let’s first understand how we tend to become disempowered. Being aware of this gives us some idea of how not to give away our power in certain circumstances.

Over time, we slowly start to give little bits of our power away to people, institutions, companies, etc. This could be a subconscious result of one or more of the following things that could have happened to you either at work or in other parts of your life:

• You get blamed for things that weren’t your doing.
• Others get special treatment over you (eg: friends of your boss, etc).
• You’re barred or excluded from certain activities or don’t have certain privileges because of who you are. 
• You are publicly humiliated for something — for example this could be in front of one person, a class full of fellow students, your family, or an organization.
• People in your life are always dictating details of how you should lead your life or work – always checking up on you, even though you know you can handle things on your own.
• You need to seek approval to do simple tasks.
• You don’t have the ability to do your assigned work due to lack of training, missing the right tools to do the job, or an unrealistic deadline.
• You’re treated as a ‘resource’ — not a human being. 
• Information about you or your team’s performance is not shared with you, and you do not know where you stand. 

Can you reflect back to instances in your home life or work life where you’ve experienced any of the above? Can you see how this may have chipped away the control and power you have over your own life or career? 

Women’s History Month is a great time to assess how we can further improve efforts for not only empowering women in the workplace – but for everyone to feel the true sense of the word.  When we are empowered at work, we have more control over our careers, which in turn leads to living a more aligned life.

The good news is that we don’t need to rely on others to empower us— here are some ways we can increase our self-empowerment:

1) Decide that it’s worthy to feel empowered!

That’s right. The first step is to know that it’s worth it to feel empowered. And worthiness comes from within. Often we don’t even realize we’re giving our power away to someone or something else, until a well-meaning friend (or this post, even) points it out. When that happens, reflect on whether you want to change the dynamic. When we put an intention towards something like empowerment, the rest of the steps tend to come a little easier. 

2) Consider your locus of control

Locus of control is the extent to which you believe you have control over the circumstances in your life, or if you believe others have control over them. 

When you understand this difference, you can start to evaluate how to tip control back in your direction and prioritize what is important to you. If you don’t, someone else will do it for you. 

3) Analyze your strengths

List all the things you’re good at. Then list all the things you could be great at.  This can be a hugely empowering activity in itself. Taking inventory of your strengths reclaims the power you may have given away. It is a reminder of what you’ve worked hard on up until now, which gives you the confidence to know you can continue working hard at building even more strengths.

4) Define what is within your value system

Your personal value system gives you structure and purpose by helping you determine what is meaningful and important to you. It helps you express who you are and what you stand for. When you have your value system at the forefront, you are less likely to give your power away to someone else. 

5) Build your emotional intelligence

Many people have heard of the term “Emotional Intelligence”, made famous in a book by Daniel Goleman and now commonly called “EQ”. Empowerment through emotional intelligence is the way you utilize your communication skills, your ability to create rapport, and your ability to empathize with people to influence outcomes and the behavior of others. Increasing your EQ allows you to stay in your power. Although there are several ways to increase your EQ, three key takeaways are in any situation are to: 

• Pay attention to your own emotions
• Pay attention to other’s reactions, and 
• Respond to them in an intentional way

6) Care deeply

Care for yourself and then others, in that order. Eventually, living fully and caring will naturally create a more empowered self, as well as a collective of individuals who care immensely about one another.

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While these are not the only ways to increase your self-empowerment, they are great ways to start doing so today. On Women’s History Month, take inspiration from the courageous women who have stood firm in their power to help shape the world.

If you are interested in learning more tools and skills for self-empowerment, or receiving 1:1 coaching to guide you to a transformed life, please contact me at [email protected]  – send me a note to say hi, and let’s see how I can help you get there!