For the past several weeks, I have written about how to empower your teams, your employees, and the leadership characteristics that build trust and transparency in your organization. All these things are crucial for a successful enterprise to serve its employees and, ultimately, its customers.
There is one final piece of this empowerment journey that I want to make sure we spend some time on – empowering yourself. Often, we spend our time looking for ways to get more out of our teams, mentoring and growing our employees, grooming managers to take on more responsibility, and building trust with our existing customers. While these things are all necessary, we often overlook one of the most important elements for being successful in all the aforementioned activities: making sure you are taking steps to empower yourself. Without this introspective exploration, you cannot inspire others to trust in you as a teammate, mentor, or provider.
So, how exactly do you shift focus from empowering those around you to turning that attention back onto yourself? Here are a few activities that have worked for me over the years:
Prioritize Time for Yourself
Our days are filled with non-stop activities at home and at work. Many of us today are actually working from our homes (while our kids are attending school from home as well). This can lead to an even more blurry boundary between home activities and work activities. This scenario makes it even more important to take some time every day to focus on yourself. It can be as easy as taking 15 minutes to simply do nothing, just sit and relax. This helps to disconnect from the world and simply focus on your own thoughts for a bit. Schedule it into your calendar if you have to!
Make a List
I’ve spent my life making lists and checking off items. It’s a great way to lay out the work you have in front of you and rank the activities to make sure you are focused on the highest priority items. Put everything on your list for the day (including personal time!) and then organize it by priority and dependencies. You’ll find it helps you stay focused and motivated to finish each day.
Do Something about Things That Bother You
We’ve all had the co-worker that constantly complains about the things that bother them without ever providing a solution, let alone taking any action to correct said issues. Don’t be this toxic presence in the lives of those around you. If something is bothering you, speak up, take action, and correct it. Bring a solution, a plan, and a positive attitude for change.
Network
The hectic nature of our lives makes it easy to lose focus on a critical business and personal activity: Networking. Meet new people, join industry groups, join clubs or organizations that support your hobbies. Regardless of your choice, make sure you are always expanding your network.
Exercise
You hear this from everywhere and everyone, but it is in fact a critical component of empowering yourself. Get some exercise every day. Even if it’s just a 30-minute walk while you are sitting on a conference call. Make it a priority and create a habit. You will feel better!
There are many ways to self-empower. These are a few that have worked for me over the years. What’s worked for you?