Last week we discussed empowerment. To empower someone means to give away power to someone to make them feel more capable and competent. It refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or economic strength of individuals and communities. Being able to do this, however, requires that you know what each person’s niche is. You have to know what each individual is good at and what they bring to the table. To empower someone, you need to believe that the other person can achieve. You need to have faith in the other person and think optimistically. You need to know what to power to give to them, because the power that is suitable for one person may not be suitable for another person. Empowerment includes things such as educating and engaging the other person, being involved in the growth process and changes that are self-initiated, increasing another person’s positive self-image and increasing one's ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong. When I hear the word “empowerment,” I think of being a cheerleader for the other person. You are there to motivate them, to uplift them, to make them surer of their capabilities, to rejoice when they make accomplishments, but most importantly, to stay on the sidelines. We then discussed if we thought organizations we were in were empowering or not. The only one that I could think of was Blue Chip, and in my opinion, it is empowering. It gives me opportunities to show off my talent and skills, my opinion is valued, I feel as though my superiors trust me, I feel support from my superiors (I’ve asked for help many times!), and I am appreciated and recognized for the work that I do. There are many things that could impede one’s ability to empower others. Vanity, being non-trusting, a perfectionist and stubborn are just a few things that could make empowering others much more difficult than it should be. I learned that I’m very motivated by my intrinsic rationale. I love the feeling of accomplishing something just because I put it on my plate. I feel more valuable when I complete my goals that I set for myself. I take on things just because I love to learn and I want to experience as much as I can. I am motivated by extrinsic factors as well (mostly by money). I’d say that I am much more likely to take something on because of my intrinsic motivation, though. I wanted to make the poster for the service showcase. Upon completion, I even took a picture of the poster and sent it to my mom just because I was so proud that I finished it. That is also why I did the first three sections of my paper. I felt that it would be the most challenging thing for me, which made it all the more desirable to take on. I’m very happy with how the poster and paper came out. My partner is satisfied too. That was all the motivation I needed.
