Empowerment

JUNE 28

THE POWER OF EMPOWERMENT

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." MATTHEW 28:18

The ability to empower others is one of the keys to personal and professional success. John Craig said, “No matter how much work you can do, no matter how engaging your personality may be, you will not advance far in business if you cannot work through others.”

When you become an empowerer, you certainly work with and through people, but you also do much more. Simply defined, empowering is giving your influence to others for the purpose of personal and organizational growth. It’s seeing others’potential, then sharing yourself—your influence, position, power, and opportunities—with others with the purpose of investing in the lives of others so that they can function at their best. The act of empowering others changes lives, and one of the greatest things about it is that it’s a win-win for you and the people you empower. If you empower others by giving them your authority, it has the same effect as sharing information. You haven’t lost anything. You’ve increased the ability of others without decreasing yourself.

Becoming a Person of Influence

For the last year I have been doing a Bible Study from the Maxwell Study Bible. Every now and then, I come across a lesson that seems to address my own life, or an event in my life.

This day's study was about leaders who empower their employees or followers or students. I have had teachers and employers who have inspired me to try harder, to reach higher, and to achieve, just as I have had teachers and employers who made just getting through a day a terrible struggle.

I chose today to remember some of those who have inspired me.

I remember a history teacher who taught 9th grade Civics by dividing the class into the three branches of government. He was the Executive Branch, several people were the Judicial Branch (the Supreme Court) and the rest of the class was divided up into the House and the Senate - the Legislative Branch. We picked a problem at school created a bill, and spent the year debating, taking it from committee to committee and finally actually changing a school policy.

I had a minister who took Christ from the pages of the Bible to the streets of Philadelphia - to the hurting - those like the people that Christ came to help - and who in doing so, inspired me to a life spent working for non-profits.

Todays lesson inspired me to look at what is left of my life. It woke a sleeping desire to 'do unto others' in positive ways. To find a way to do good and do no harm, and hopefully give others a reason to do good in their own life.

"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." I Peter 3:9