How do we empower?

What is empowerment?

I believe empowerment is an interplay between the ‘outer world’ or culture in which we find ourselves in and our ‘inner world’. The outer world or culture may shape what is possible, create space and structure for us to act. The inner world is our thoughts and feelings, what we believe about ourselves, our conditioning and where we perceive our power in the outer world to be.

For this blog, I have re-framed the question of how we empower nurses to ask

How do we empower?

We empower people when we create environments that listen with care, respect and compassion.

“We listen as though we always have something to learn from others regardless of their perceived or stated position in the environment”

Environments, organisational structures and professions that embody listening and learning, enable growth. I believe this is possible within a hierarchy. This is possible within our schools and workplaces. In a rapidly evolving world, ideas and innovations could come from any person at any stage of development or level.

I believe a listening and learning and culture starts with our children, they do need boundaries, to respect and follow their teachers and at the same time, be able to come up with questions that expand and challenge existing ways of knowing and being. We can hold those who are growing with care, respect and compassion that gives them a platform to grow, innovate and create. This shapes their inner world, an inner narrative that believes it has a voice, that values itself and its ideas. It is an inner world that isn’t afraid to speak and isn’t afraid to make mistakes. A growth mindset rather than fixed mindset (the work of Carol Dweck is fascinating-short you tube clip here)A listening and learning culture realises that making mistakes is part of learning. For nursing, we need to embrace learning from our mistakes and know that this is part of our growth and may actually increase the safety and quality of the care we deliver to patients. You can read more about this in the fabulous book ‘Black Box Thinking’ by Matthew Syed. Our profession must allow its learners to flourish right from the start, by embracing a coaching and facilitative approach.

I remember seeing a great mentor being asked a question by a student, instead of answering the question she said “what do you think ?” there was a long pause, the student said they didn’t know. The mentor said “if you did know, what would you say?”    (A classic Nancy Kline coaching question) and eventually the student thought and answered. I was so impressed with this approach to supporting learning and creating a thinking environment, I started on my own journey to become a coach and facilitator of learning.

What can we do to empower ourselves?

If empowerment is an interplay of outer and inner worlds, we all have a part to play. We also need to look inwards.

“Start by noticing your thoughts, feelings and the stories you are telling or creating about yourself and your world.” 

Once we become aware of our patterns and conditioning we have choice, becoming aware gives us the the opportunity to re-write, re-frame and create the inner world we want and this in turn can shape the outer world we wish to see too. For our profession, let’s focus on noticing what we have done well each day, what mistakes we can learn from, what we have contributed to our patients journeys, what our colleagues and teams have done that we can celebrate. Let’s create an inner and outer dialogue about a profession that is valuable and valued.