Empowering Others

Your Good Deeds Make Their Way Back To You
Just for today find someone to encourage and inspire toreach their full potential. What you put out in the worldwill inevitably make its way back to you. I'm the first toadmit that when we are experiencing particularly hard timesthis appears to be the farthest thing from the truth.
However, there are any number of reasons this is true, thesimplest of which can be explained in that people as ageneral rule like to associate with, gravitate towards, andyes, when they're in a position to do so make the choice towork with, and hire those people who have an upbeat andpositive attitude -- and who look for the good in situations.

As you move through your day today keep the following sayingin mind, "life's like a boomerang, the more good you throwout, the more you receive in return."

To prove the truth in the ideas shared above, carry a littlejournal around, keep track of how many times your "gooddeeds" make their way back to you in the course of a month or two.
Don't go into this little exercise looking to prove itwrong, or more than likely that's precisely what you'll endup doing.

Remember, more often than not we get exactly what we focuson, whether that's a good thing or not depends at least tosome degree on what you and I go looking for and take noticeof in life.
Get the Cooperation of Others…Empowering people is the key to building a high-performance team. Once you empower people by learning how to motivate and inspire them, they will want to work with you to help you achieve your goals in everything you do.

Your ability to enlist the knowledge, energy and resources of others enables you to become a multiplication sign, to leverage yourself so that you accomplish far more than the average person and in a far shorter period of time.

Determine the Key People to Empower…There are three types of people that you want to and need to empower on a regular basis. They are, first of all, the people closest to you: your family, your friends, your spouse and your children.

Second are your work relationships: your staff, your coworkers, your peers, your colleagues and even your boss.

Third are all the other people that you interact with in your day-to-day life: your customers, your suppliers, your banker, the people with whom you deal in stores, restaurants, airplanes, hotels and everywhere else.

In each case, your ability to get people to help you is what will make you a more powerful and effective person.

Always Be Positive…Empower means “putting power into,” and it can also mean “bringing 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.

There are things you can do every single day to empower people and make them feel good about themselves.

Satisfy the Deepest Needs…The deepest need that each person has is for self-esteem, a sense of being important, valuable and worthwhile.

Everything that you do in your interactions with others affects their self-esteem in some way. You already have an excellent frame of reference to determine the things that you can do to boost the self-esteem and therefore the sense of personal power of those around you. Give them what you’d like for yourself.

Continually Express Appreciation…Perhaps the simplest way to make another person feel good about himself or herself is your continuous expressions of appreciation for everything that person does for you, large or small. Say “thank you” on every occasion.

Thank your spouse for everything that he or she does for you. Thank your children for their cooperation and support in everything that they do around the house. Thank your friends for the smallest acts of kindnesses. The more you thank other people for doing things for you, the more things those other people will want to do.

Action Exercises:
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, continually look for ways to make people feel more valuable and important. Say things to others that you would like others to say to you.
Second, express appreciation for everything anyone does for you, large or small. Say the words, “thank you” on every occasion.