Everything you will ever have and accomplish in life will be done through other people. Learning to get things done through others is absolutely essential to your happiness and success in life. Your ability to get others to help you and cooperate with you will determine how much you get done and how high you rise in everything you set out to accomplish. Your ability to enlist the knowledge, energy, and resources of others will enable you to leverage yourself so that you can accomplish far more than the average person and in a far shorter period of time.
There are three types of people that you need to empower on a regular basis. They are, first of all, your family, friends, your spouse and your children. Second, are your staff, coworkers, your peers, colleagues, and even your boss. Third, you want to enlist the support of everyone else that you interact with in your daily life: your customers, suppliers, banker and all the other people you deal with, such as in stores, restaurants, airplanes, hotels and everywhere else. In each case, it will be your ability to get people to help you, that will make you a more powerful and effective person.
Empower means to "put power in to," and it can also mean to bring energy and enthusiasm "out of." So the first step in empowering people is to refrain from doing anything that disempowers them or reduces their energy and enthusiasm for what they are doing.
The simplest way to make another person feel good about him or herself is by showing continuous expressions of appreciation for what that person does, large or small. Say "thank you" on every occasion. The more you thank other people for doing things for you, the more things they will want to do.
Every time you thank another person, you cause that person to like themselves better. You raise their self-esteem and improve their self-image. You cause them to feel more important. You make them feel that what they did was valuable and worthwhile. And by thanking someone, it makes you feel happier, more content, and more positive about what you are doing as well.
When you praise another person, you make them feel important. You raise their self-esteem and give them a sense of power and energy. It is important to always remember, that when you give someone praise do it immediately after they've completed a job and be specific. The more immediate your praise is after an accomplishment, the more impact it will have on their personality. And the more specific your praise is with regard to their achievement, the better it will make them feel.
Another excellent way to empower others, build their self-esteem, and make them feel important is to pay close attention to them when they talk. When you listen patiently, attentively, and without interruption, to everything the other person is saying to you, without attempting to jump in with your own comments, you'll be amazed at how much better the other person will feel. Being a good listener is the single most important thing you can do to empower another person.
Again, the three general rules for empowering the people around you, are appreciation, approval, and attention. Voice your thanks and gratitude to them on every occasion. Praise them for every accomplishment. And pay close attention to them when they talk and want to interact with you. These three behaviors alone will make you a master of human interaction and will greatly empower the people you interact with on a daily basis.
When you're in a working environment one of the biggest motivators is clarity. People need to know what it is that they are supposed to do. They need to know why they are supposed to do it and how it fits into the big picture. They need to know how it will be measured, and when it is due. They need to know to what standard of quality it is supposed to be done and how it affects the work of other people. The greater clarity a person has about his or her job, and the order of priority in which it is to be done, the happier and more empowered that person will feel when they start to work.
The more time you spend talking to another person and inviting his or her feedback on their work, the more empowered that person will be to do the work well. If you want to empower the people you work with, you have to transfer ownership into their hearts and minds. When they feel that they personally own the job and the responsibility for doing it well they will be completely empowered. This is one of the most important skills you can ever develop.
Another important way to motivate other people is to show them genuine consideration. Show you care about the people you work with by asking them questions about their lives, and listening to them when they have concerns or problems. The more that a person feels that you like and respect them as a person, the more empowered and motivated they will be.
The most important thing you can do to empower other people is to always be genuine, positive, and cheerful. When you consistently act in this way to others, you will also be developing a positive mental attitude. You will become easy going, friendly, patient, and open minded. You will make other people comfortable when they are around you.
Remember, people are primarily emotional. Everything that people do, or refrain from doing, is triggered by their deep emotions. To empower others, you must connect with their higher and more positive emotions so that they feel so good about you, they want to help and please you in some way.
In your life, you always have a choice. You can either do everything yourself or you can get others to help you to do some of the work. Our entire economic structure is built on the principle of specialization. Specialization means that some people specialize and become very good in a certain field while other people specialize and become very good in another type of field.
For you to achieve your full potential, you must contribute the greatest amount of value possible. You must concentrate all your energies on becoming excellent in your specialized field, so that you can be paid the amount you want to earn and move ahead at the rate you want to move ahead. But in order for you to specialize and to do what you are best at, you must be able to delegate and out-source virtually everything else.
One of your jobs must be to continually increase your talents so that you can be more effective in your relationships and get more done. The more people you can effect with your personality to help you, the more you will accomplish, and the faster you will accomplish it.
Copyright© 2005 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. He is founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many of America's largest corporations, on the subjects of leadership, self-esteem, goals, achievement, and success psychology.
Reach Joe at: joe@jlmandassociates.com
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