Image courtesy of *sweetcaroline
"You can only get what you want, if you help enough other people get what they want." – Zig Ziglar
One way to help other people is to empower them because by empowering them you could literally change their lives for the better.
Empower means "to give somebody power or authority" and also "to give somebody a sense of confidence or self-esteem".
People always feel motivated and inspired when they feel empowered. And when they feel motivated and inspired by you, they'd be more than happy to help you achieve whatever you want.
Once you've mastered this ability to get people to help you voluntarily, it will make you a more powerful, effective and successful person.
I have listed some of the methods which you can adopt to empower other people.
1. Show More Appreciation
To empower someone, you have to make the person feel good about himself/herself. And the simplest way to achieve that is to express your appreciation for everything that person does for you, large or small.
Every one of us has a deep desire to feel appreciated and a sense of self-worth. If you could satisfy this craving of any individual, he/she would go to great lengths for you.
The most direct and also the simplest way to show your appreciation is simply to say – sincerely and honestly – "Thank you."
So often in life, we have taken things for granted – especially towards those who are close to us – that we fail to say those two simple little, yet powerful words for the things that they have done for us. Instead, we often complain about the things they've not done for us.
It is time for us to start looking more deeply into the good of other people and tell them, "Thank you. I really appreciate that."
By doing so, you'll be helping yourself garner the greatest support from people to help you get to where you want.
2. Show Your Genuine Interest in Other People
Why do you think most people love dogs? Simple. Because dogs are born to be genuinely interested in people.
They're always happy to be around you. They'd wag their tails, lick you, and jump around you to show you just how excited they are to have you here.
This showing of genuine interest in people is something we have to seriously learn from dogs. Yes, you heard me right. Learn this from dogs.
Everybody loves some attention, even though they may not seek attention openly or publicly. This is because attention shows us that somebody actually care about us. It shows us that our existence is not being ignored and neglected. It proves that we're worth being taken notice of.
A genuine show of interest can do wonders in nourishing a person's sense of self-worth. So, if you want to empower other people and help yourself at the same time, show your genuine interest in other people.
3. Show The Other Person He or She is Important
To blossom a person's sense of self-worth to the ultimate, we have to always seek to make the other person feel important.
Sincere appreciation and recognition are the keys to making someone feel important. Take note that the keyword here is sincere because nobody wants to listen to cheap and insincere flattery. Insincerity will only backfire.
The first step to making a person feel important is to STOP TAKING HIM OR HER FOR GRANTED. And show deep appreciation.
If you want to make your team members feel important, you can try something like this:
"Ally, thank you for the great job done. Without your help, the project wouldn't have been such a great success. You've proved to be a very important and worthy team player. And I hope you'd continue to offer this great support to help us move forward together."
Or if you want to make your kids feel important, try this:
"John, thank you for being such a wonderful son. You've been the best gift to mum and dad. We've always been very grateful to having you in the family. We couldn't have asked for anything better."
And remember, when showing appreciation; always start with a simple "Thank you."
4. Show Respect
Ego is a fundamental element of the human nature that, which if upset, can cause a major emotional upheaval.
Ego, in other words, means your self-concept. It is made up of two components, namely your self-esteem and your self-image.
Human beings will always strive to raise their level of self-esteem and self-image, or seek to protect them from being impaired by other people and circumstances.
Whenever you need to point out somebody's fault, remember to show respect to his/her pride by doing it in a discreet manner so that he/she will not feel embarrassed.
By allowing their ego to remain intact, you're in essence giving them a chance to remain empowered. One rule you need to adhere to in order to empower someone is to first not do anything to dis-empower him/her.
If you find someone that you could look up to, you can always go up to the person to tell him/her how much you respect what he/she has achieved or handled a dire situation or overcome an adversity.
Nevertheless, do remember the key to empowering a person is to be sincere and honest with your words and actions.
5. Give Encouragement Instead of Criticism
Now this is a common one. Whenever your kid, your spouse, or your employee makes a blunder or slip up in their responsibilities, how would you react?
You'd probably fly into a rage and make all sorts of crude remarks. No? Ok, maybe you're more refined and well mannered that all you'd do is reproach them for committing the mistakes.
However, in spite of the placidness of the criticism, it is still not an empowering approach.
Perhaps you could try an approach like this one:
"Honestly Lesha, I'm disappointed that we didn't manage to clinch the deal this time round. However, I do believe you're a bright young lady, and I'm very confident that you have what it takes to clinch us the next deal. You would do whatever it takes to secure it for us, right? Correct me if I'm wrong."
Now, that wouldn't sound harsh, would it?
Every one of us has the magic power of empowering other people simply by generously giving praise and showing encouragement to help them realise their underlying potential.
"Abilities wither under criticism; they blossom under encouragement." – Dale Carnegie
Now that you've learnt how to empower other people, so when and where should you apply each one of them? The answer is: all the time, everywhere.
Have you got any other suggestions on how we can empower other people? Please share them in the comments section below.
Mark Foo is a Personal Development Blogger @ TheBigDreamer.com where he writes about success, personal finance, wealth creation and entrepreneurship to help people become better, wiser and richer.
In his movie debut, Ambition to Meaning, Wayne Dyer explores the spiritual journey in the second half of life when we long to shift from ambition to meaning and find the purpose that is our unique contribution to the world.
"I' m more proud of this film than of anything I've ever done before." – Wayne Dyer
Visit AmbitionToMeaning.com to watch the trailer and music videos or to order the DVD.
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