Feel Empowered at Work and in Your Life

Posted June 19, 2015 & filed under Productivity, Work Environment

Are you looking to feel empowered in your life? At work? At home? When it comes to feeling empowered, it is evident that attitude and ambience matter. What do we mean by these two “A” words, “attitude” and “ambience”, is the question. Feeling empowered starts with you, yourself, but your coworkers matter… a lot. AM New York published an article last month on tips for feeling empowered at work. They had some good advice, and together with their advice and our general knowledge of the workplace,  we will walk through some ways to be empowered at work and in life.

In order to feel confident and empowered in your work life, you must create the right ambience. This word, ambience, is a fancy word for environment. Create the environment that makes both you and the team around you reach maximum productivity while being content at the same time.  You don’t have to be a manager to do this, you can create your environment and a positive environment for those around you. Environment and productivity matter for all employees.

Encourage your coworkers, or those that you manage if you are in that position, to have a positive attitude. Happy employees with positive attitudes can bolster productivity and this can lead to continued success. Sharing is key. According to the article from AM New York,  “Empowerment in the workplace involves understanding your company’s objectives and having faith in your contributions to them, according to career authorities.”

Working together builds empowerment…no doubt about it. Building each other up is key. The experts have weighed in and have backed up the notion that empowerment matters to all levels of employees. In the AM New York article, the vice president of workplace solutions at Care.com, Donna Levin, stresses the importance of confidence and empowerment. She says, “[It is having the confidence to] ‘take control over your projects and your career path.” Further explaining the importance of this confidence, Levin stresses that “Empowerment is the knowledge that your team  trusts you to deliver results, to share feedback openly and contribute to the big-picture goal.” Results will follow empowerment is what she is saying here. When employees are encouraged, happy and confident in their work setting, they will push forward and take risks to grow and prosper. An empowered employee can deliver. So whatever your work “ambience” is and your work “attitude” is, evaluate these two things and take note of whether or not you are empowering your coworkers and yourself at the same time. Do you feel empowered by your manager? If not,  do your own empowering and spread this empowerment by leading others, and in turn your manager might just do the same. Recognize employees for their hard work and accomplishments, be it your peers or people that you manage. This will empower them. Coworkers need to build each other up, too, so this whole empowerment thing really is not just about the managers. Teamwork builds confidence! So work with your team and try to gain that confidence and spread it!