Empowerment in the workplace is often a result of self-knowledge and confidence in one’s capabilities in performing their professional role. It has nothing to do with conceit or overconfidence in who we are as employees or what we do. Healthy empowerment in the workplace helps put us in our place, assert our skills, and align our professional development with the company’s objectives.
How can I increase my empowerment in the workplace?
As it is often said, there are no magic recipes or shortcuts to develop professionally at work or convince ourselves of our worth or abilities. However, here are ten suggestions to increase your empowerment in the workplace.
1. Know your skills
We may unknowingly evolve our talents without even being aware that we have or are developing them. However, being aware of our strengths to use, assert, create, or simply enjoy them is much more efficient.
2. Trust your abilities
In order to achieve a level of empowerment in the workplace that is adequate for our well-being requires knowing not only how good a worker we are or what we are good at. It also requires confidence and the emotional experience that intertwines our qualities, those we know we have and those we do not yet know.
3. Trust the process
Feeling empowered does not mean we must be capable of doing everything and anything. We must be aware of patterns and of other people and cultivate a patient and optimistic attitude, trusting that sometimes. However, it may not seem so, and we are going in the right direction, which may lead us toward our work objectives.
4. Take advantage of development opportunities
No one increases their empowerment in the workplace just by wishing for it or moving exclusively within their small professional area. Empowerment in the workplace comes from growing, experimenting, and taking advantage of all those opportunities to exert what we know.
5. Don’t wait (forever) for the best moment
We have just made it clear: being cautious and not doing crazy things is fine, but don’t be paralyzed, experiment, test yourself, and be only as scared when necessary. Sometimes we know we are not ready to take on a particular responsibility, and that’s when it’s okay to stop. Other times it could be more evident, and we only know what we’re ready for once we do it.
6. Feel the power in a realistic way
Suppose you know your capabilities after analyzing them with stability and develop adequate confidence in them. This allows you to expose yourself to particular safety-impact challenges. In that case, it is possible to obtain empowerment in the workplace.
7. Develop your critical capacity
In our lives, we all constantly give our opinion about our capabilities, what we are called for, what we are denied, and how we must evaluate ourselves. That is why it is crucial to develop an adequate critical capacity to distinguish the conclusions, not to believe everything we are told (especially the bad things), and to boost our professional development.
8. Seek adequate mentoring
To achieve a reasonable degree of empowerment in the workplace, it is essential to have someone to remind us of who we are, to help us find answers, and to give us good examples of how to use power healthily in our professional careers. That person, formally or informally, is the one who provides good mentoring.
9. Difference between empowering others and empowering yourself
As we have implied at different points in this list, we must remember that we can all, in a certain sense, act as mentors for other colleagues, whether or not they are at the same hierarchical level as us. Empowerment at work is not only about your growth but also about the influence you have on the growth of others.
10. Don’t just think about your capabilities, put them into practice
Empowerment at work is the process of acquiring skills (ability, autonomy, knowledge, solvency) and the awareness of possessing them. But it is also the exercise of those capabilities, which allows you to advance, generate the best results and keep the virtuous circle of your professional development alive.
Supporting employee empowerment in the workplace
Achieving an acceptable and valuable level of empowerment at work is an individual responsibility, but that does not mean that you are alone in it: the support and cooperation of others are indispensable to achieving it.
Therefore, team managers and those responsible in the Human Resources department must be clear that we all influence each other in our empowerment at work and can accelerate each other’s development.
If you are in charge of people, keep this in mind and the three following points.
1. Performance reviews
Take advantage of performance reviews to offer recognition and feedback, allowing employees to learn, develop, and execute their current and future skills.
2. Development opportunities
We are committed to providing opportunities in a progressive and controlled manner. We can never be sure what someone will be able to achieve until we entrust them with new responsibilities that boost their professional development and the team’s achievements.
3. Empowerment modeling
Act as a role model for self-confidence and properly handle difficult situations. All employees must have inspiring role models on their team and, of course, learn through constructive emulation.
| Measures to boost empowerment at work | ||
| 1. | Performance reviews | Use performance reviews to provide recognition and feedback, allowing employees to learn about, develop, and execute their current and future skills. |
| 2. | Development opportunities | Commit to giving opportunities in a progressive and controlled manner. We can never be sure what someone will be able to achieve until we give them new responsibilities that boost their professional development and the achievements of the team. |
| 3. | Empowerment models | Act as a role model for self-confidence and proper handling of difficult situations. Employees must have inspiring role models in their team and, of course, learn through constructive emulation. |
Fostering emotional well-being in organizations
Empowerment in the workplace allows us to meet corporate objectives and enjoy our experience as employees, keeping work stress and the so-called “imposter syndrome” at bay. However, it only sometimes comes quickly or steadily.
At ifeel, we offer you our global emotional well-being program for companies, designed by our team of expert psychologists in well-being at work. This collaboration allows managers in the People, Talent, and Human Resources area to receive personalized, data-based advice on the best care for the psychological well-being of the teams under their charge.
Do you belong to your organization’s Human Resources department? Try our program now to see how it could help you.
In addition, our program offers all employees a complete mental health care service that includes emotional support and online therapy with one of our professionals.
Moreover, in our Resources section, you can find different materials, such as podcasts, HR guides on various topics (e.g., employee experience or how to design a good HR strategy), or Interviews with leading HR managers. In addition, we have a Psychosocial Risk Factors Template, which you can use to comply with the requirements of the Labor Inspection.
We hope you found this post on empowerment in the workplace interesting. If you would like more information about our emotional well-being program for companies, all you have to do is request it, and we will contact your team as soon as possible.
What is empowerment in the workplace?
Empowerment in the workplace comes from a personal process in which you become aware of your capabilities, value them, and build efficiency and worth that allows you to perform your tasks successfully.
How can managers empower their teams?
Motivating, recognizing, and giving opportunities to the team is essential. However, it is always good for managers to receive advice from professional psychologists to enhance their team’s capabilities.
Does empowerment in the workplace enhance performance?
Of course, it influences our motivation and involvement in tasks and enables us to develop professionally and argue better for what we do and need.
How can I increase my empowerment in the workplace?
Empowerment in the workplace is a process that requires more than just “believing in it.” It involves discovering, exercising, and experiencing at an emotional level our capabilities, growth margins, and achievements.
