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In this episode, our co-hosts Érica, Bertrand, and Bernardo delve into the intriguing dynamics of power and empowerment in the workplace. We explore the distinctions between these concepts, their implications in leadership and team dynamics, and how they shape the future of work and life.
🎙️ In this Episode
🎁 Little Gifts to Takeaway
1. Empowerment requires effort and understanding of the 'why' behind actions.
🎙️ In this Episode
- (00:00) - Introduction to the Episode
- (00:10) - Understanding Power vs Empowerment
- (01:03) - The Bright and Dark Sides of Influence
- (01:59) - Defining Empowerment
- (03:17) - The Role of Power in Companies
- (05:49) - The Importance of Empowerment in Today's Companies
- (15:17) - The Challenges of Empowerment
- (22:43) - Practical Tips for Improving Empowerment
- (24:25) - Conclusion and Wrap-up
🎁 Little Gifts to Takeaway
1. Empowerment requires effort and understanding of the 'why' behind actions.
2. There's a significant difference between power and empowerment, with power often misused in high positions.
3. True empowerment involves support, growth, and motivation.
4. Effective communication is crucial for empowerment, especially in remote work environments.
5. Empowerment in a company requires dedicated investment and a cultural shift towards supportive leadership.
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- YouTube: @BluewavesBoutique
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Creators & Guests
What is Tinkering the Future of Work and Life?
Every week we give a fresh and positive look at the future of work. We dream of a more people-centered digital world. We share little tips and magic tricks for greater daily confidence and serenity.
Once a month, we welcome a guest with a unique story and personality. Certainly not a media star, but a genuine hero of their life!
We inspire people to embrace change and create a better and kinder world.
003 • Power vs. Empowerment
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[00:00:00] Introduction to the Episode
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Bertrand: Welcome to episode number three of Tinkering the Future of Work and Life. I'm Bertrand, and today I'm with Érica.
[00:00:10] Understanding Power vs Empowerment
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Bertrand: Today we will discuss a particularly important topic, which is power versus empowerment.
Érica: Welcome to The Tinkering, the Future of Work and Life produced by Bluewaves Boutique. Providing you with a fresh and positive look at the future of work by sharing little tips and magic tricks for your daily dose of confidence.
Today, I heard something today. I saw something Today, I've tried something together. We have learned.
Bertrand: It's not easy to create empowerment in your team, your company, or for yourself, we have to put specific effort if we want it to happen. But let's start with the episode.
[00:01:03] The Bright and Dark Sides of Influence
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Bertrand: So Érica Bernardo, maybe we could talk about the two kind of influences, the bright side and the dark side of influence.
What do you think?
Bernardo: I think nowadays there's a big difference between power and empowerment, but unfortunately many people still believe that power is everything in companies, especially in high positions. But of course, like everything in life there is a good side of power and there's a bad side of power. many people take advantage of being powerful.
What do you think?
Érica: I think people honestly dunno the difference about power and empowerment, in companies as well, but in life.
Bertrand: It's not confusing actually, but people still being confused when it comes to having power or empowering someone and they don't really understand where is the difference. And sometime they mess up one with the other.
[00:01:59] Defining Empowerment
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Bertrand: ButWhat is empowerment actually? What do you think how could we define empowerment?
If we can have a definition?
Bernardo: For me, empowerment is supporting others and elevate their growth so they can perform, be, perform better faster and innovate more. I. The right direction. While power is just you leaning back and let every and just you do this, you do this, I want this, or you do it for me. That's not empowerment. That is power, but that's just my opinion.
Bertrand: Do we have maybe an example Of empowerment to share.
Érica: I'm just going to give my opinion because I don't think everyone sees like you see, of course, I think empowerment it's about you have your own goals, you have your own way of going, and you have the ambition, the motivation to go there, and then power. It's not just bossing around, like you said, it's about you think you are better than the others, but it's just my opinion.
Of course.
Bertrand: So Empowerment would be the bright side. We have the force and the dark side of the force.
Bernardo: Yeah,
Bertrand: But if so because we could do the comparison reason between star Wars where people should be on the bright side of the force, but sometimes lean towards the dark side of the forest.
[00:03:17] The Role of Power in Companies
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Bertrand: Why do people use the word empowerment so much and most of the time they shift to having power on people instead of empowering them. Where does it come from?
Bernardo: like Érica said, I think it goes towards shifts to power when they want to align with their own ambition and goals. When they see that people are not moving towards the goals that they have, they shift to power to make sure that they follow certain guidelines and directions to achieve those set goals.
Érica: I think that the underlying reason, it's because people are impatient. People are very impatient nowadays. They always were. But nowadays with everything so fast people don't have the patience to wait for people to be empowered. So they just want to have power to be better. So you have to do, like you said, you have to do what I want.
It's not all negative. Of course, power is not a negative thing. It just so that you are ambitious, but you don't need to boss around to have power.
Bertrand: Yeah. Used right. Maybe power could inspire others. To be empowered finally. But only if you use it, right, because if you use it wrong, this is maybe the dark side of power using it to boss around to command other people to have the power on people.
And that's why in companies, for example, all people call themselves managers. The job of the manager is to empower people, but finally they act like bosses. Yeah.
Bernardo: There is that. Very famous cliche sentence that with great power comes great responsibility, but bossing other people around is not a responsibility. With great power comes support, guidance
growth as well. So even with power, you can help others elevate and grow inside the company and even outside.
Bertrand: So maybe that's the first thing we can take for the audience is that finally power doesn't have to be negative, just what we figured out in companies when we see that, when you observe it, it's used in a negative way. But in no sense power can be seen as the same concept as empowerment, right?
Érica: Exactly. Yeah.
Bertrand: Okay. Empowerment is everywhere. We see empowerment in articles. We see empowerment in videos. We hear empowerment in podcasts.
[00:05:49] The Importance of Empowerment in Today's Companies
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Bertrand: Like today, people talk about empowerment and why actually is empowerment so important in today's companies? Why? Does it matter? Empowerment when you have a team, when you are alone for a company.
Érica: I think if I may, sorry. I think it's all about motivation. Motivate people. without motivation you cannot go anywhere. And how do you do that? By empowering yourself, of course. And empower others as well. It's like in society, you cannot have a society. People don't want to go with you, for example,
Bernardo: Yeah, it's motivation. A hundred percent agree. Without that motivation, you cannot grow. If you don't want to do anything, if you don't want to evolve, you will stay stuck in the same place. So you will never grow as an individual or as a group or as a society. Like you said, if you don't have goals and ambitions, and if you don't have that self-empowerment, you will never grow.
You will stay stuck and as for a company that's never the solution or an option.
Érica: And being in power doesn't mean, like you said about the goals and everything, it doesn't mean that you have to have a big goal like pick the next millionaire on the world. It doesn't mean that it just. A normal goal, like a routine you have that already use things for most. A lot of people actually.
Bertrand: Empowerment is related to achievement, something you want to achieve by yourself. Also when we think about teams and companies, so empowered teams usually go faster and do greater things than teams who don't feel empowered.
Érica: Yes. And that is easy to see in companies when they not working very well is easy to see which teams are empowered and which are not. 'cause of course, you always see one team is how to say iT.
Bernardo: Faster more efficient.
Érica: Thank you, that word to do the work to achieve the goals. And the other one just, I don't understand why I do, I have to do this. I don't understand why I have to work on this, something like that,
Bernardo: But I think I know why that happens. Like you said, there are teams in some companies that are more efficient. They are quicker. They are faster at achieving their goals and ambitions. That's because not only they were empowered, but they empowered themselves as well. I. So like we will, like we said, to empower others.
First, you need to empower yourself to achieve, like set goals, big ones, small ones. You need to stay motivated, you need to have ambition, but you cannot empower others without doing that to yourself. At least that's my opinion.
Bertrand: Maybe to go back to something you said Érica is, the why, the importance of the why because when people feel empowered, usually it's because they understand the reason why they're doing things. It's not only delegating and telling people, okay, you can do whatever you want on this topic. Explaining them why this topic exists, and finding the why for themselves as well.
Instead of having power on people, you tell them to do something. It's all about the what? Empowerment is more about the why. Letting people figure out the how and the what, maybe.
Érica: Yes. And it's very common. It's very common. Always was that people don't want to explain the why. Most of the people don't know even what they are doing. So they don't have the need to explain the why, but we always are searching for the why, even is personal or professional, so
Bertrand: They don't. Manage to figure out the why for themselves. Therefore, they cannot explain it to the others.
Érica: exactly.
Bernardo: And we normally see that when empowering others, they choose a specific person or group, which I think it's a bit selfish because empowerment is for everyone. You don't just empower a specific person or a group. You have to empower everyone. Everyone has the means. to grow and to evolve and to achieve their goals and ambition inside the company and even outside.
Érica: Empowerment is for everyone. Have you ever. Thought that maybe it's not them. They have, they choose the team. It's the company that chose it's the biggest problem. You don't have any kind of saying on what you are doing and why you're doing most of the time it's not the problem of the manager. It's a problem. Of up the higher levels and you just have to do your job.
Most people think like that. I just have to do my job so I cannot empower others if nobody empowers myself.
Bertrand: Sure. So maybe the lack of empowerment is deeply rooted in the way company work. Because most companies, of course, you can see liberated structure and more open company where people can choose even tasks they are performing and ways they do the job. But there are very few companies, particularly, since 2000 To today, company tend not to empower people in the world where we need maybe more than ever to empower people to help them figure out what they want to do the way they want to work. Company go backwards. They try to measure everything. They try to fix rules for everything.
Érica: Yeah, you can see that companies are lost and they don't know how to handle the employees. And nowadays that, well-being and the mental health is so aware I. That people just try to follow the rules. So everything sticks to the plan more or less,
Bernardo: But I think that happened. Because of the lockdowns, many companies went from physical work to remote work. So they lost that capability to empower others remotely. But since empowerment has no space, physical, mental mental, digital, they lost that sense, that opportunity to empower others even from far away.
So right now, since they came back to the physical side, they are a bit lost to how empower others again,
Érica: I don't, sorry, but I don't think that exists. I don't think that before the lockdown, the companies knew how to do it. The problem was, like you said, the lockdown. Yes, I raise a lot of problems and I raise people staying at home. So you have to care about more about yourself because you don't have any way to escape more or less because.
The routine of the work and to go to the office and everything was an escape for most of people from the routine that they have at home. So companies never knew how to deal with that. But nowadays you have more than tools and platforms or whatever. I dunno, to really like coaching. It's not coaching, but like to give the tools to people to do that, to know how to do it and grow with that.
There's no excuse for me.
Bertrand: Yeah, no excuse. And particularly, I totally agree with you that maybe in beginning of 2020, people didn't have the choice. Nobody knew how to make it work. People had to figure it out. And in a sense, they had to empower people because no company or nearly no company knew how to work in a remote environment.
But it's three years ago already. Andfinally we can say there's no excuse anymore. We know how to behave. We have the tools to do it and companies have the choice and what do we see? Not that massive as people may want to believe, but still a massive back-to-The-office movement, and sorry, but back to the office is the opposite of empowerment.
Érica: I think it depends on with whom you're talking to, of course, because some people like to go to the office every day, some not, But I think it's fifty-fifty. It's not only the fault of the company, it's not only the fault of the employee, so they should work together in the typical world, of course, but everyone has to do their part and everyone has to see if someone is not giving that to me.
So I, I will have to make an effort to grow on that and to help others to achieve that as well.
Bernardo: It's all about supporting others and like you said, it's not a hundred percent fault, the fault of the company, nor the employees. they have to find a way to support each other, the back to the office movement is not working for some.
Some people don't want to stay at home. They want to go to the office. I, myself always liked working in the office because I'm always with other people. I can communicate with others easily. I'm not just sitting out on a computer. Most people love the privacy of their own home, their quiet space.
But some companies don't give that chance that option. So I think it's both their role to find a flexible way to empower Their jobs and their schedules.
Bertrand: Finally what we're saying is that sure some company may not want to empower people and offering them the capability to work wherever they want and whenever they want, on the other side some employees didn't do the effort to show companies that may not understand what it means.
That they deserve to be empowered. Quite tricky.
Bernardo: Shouldn't be, but yes, it is.
[00:15:17] The Challenges of Empowerment
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Bertrand: So finally what we're saying is that empowerment is far from being easy, right? Because it's both side like in star Wars. It's really easy to shift or to lean towards the dark size of the force, meaning taking power over people because finally it's simpler. Yes.
Érica: Yes. It's way easier just passing around to just tell people what to do. It's more easy for them. for the team as well. Well, I have to do this, so I will stick as well to the plan. More or less. It's way easier. Yes, but it's not healthy and people then going burn out and everything.
Bernardo: It's a toxic behavior. You do this because I want to achieve this. That's not the healthiest way to go.
Érica: It's the easiest. Yeah. Yeah.
Bertrand: Also, even without going radically towards as bossing around and having power of the people we also see lately quite poor empowerment practices which are mixed up with delegation So I empower you to do that. Finally means. Okay, this is your goal. Do it and bye. And this maybe not the right way to empower people.
Something still missing if you want to empower people, just my opinion. Of course.
Bernardo: It's missing the support.
Érica: I don't think it's just support. Of course it is, it's a big part of the empowerment people of course. But I think it's as well understand. What you are doing there and why? For example, in most of companies, you see people just quitting their jobs. They go, they enter for a description for a job.
I think it's job like, okay. And people expect one thing and they get there. They just is different. They don't ask anyone. They're just trying to figure out in two months they go away as well. So it's always missing something. 'cause people don't understand as well. They don't make an effort to understand.
They just stick to the description of the work that don't, I dunno, I think. It's about the support as well. It's about to make relationships in the job People just don't know how to do that as well.
Bertrand: It's true. We had a recent example in the company where someone told a team very important team for the company and for its strategy. Guys, you are empowered to do that, but the way the president used and empowered was true. It was the right meaning of empowerment, meaning, okay you have the right to do it.
You have the meaning to do it. If you need something to achieve it, I will be there. But it was also, if you don't understand something, if you get lost, if you don't understand what I give you as a mission. And empower you on this mission. You can always ask, you can always tell that you struggle. You can always say that maybe you would do it another way around and you can disagree and give feedback, but strangely, the team didn't understand.
They just took the mission as a comment and is now executing this mission poorly just because they messed up with an order. Something that they're forced to do and they don't understand very well or something, they are empowered for whether they have the word to say, and they can do much more.
Bernardo: This that happened because power is so deeply rooted in that company that the first chance of empowerment, they thought, okay, so that's what I have to do. Okay, but I didn't understand. No matter they asked me to do this, I will do this.
Érica: Yes. They didn't understand why.
Bernardo: Yeah, exactly.
Érica: So they do what they already know how to do is just trying to do something that fills the gap. They don't even understand what is in power. didn't even saw that. So they just think, if they ask me this, it's because, the company apparently needs this.
So I will do what I know to do.
Bernardo: They didn't even ask. For a better understanding, a better engagement of the teams and everything. They just did what they thought it was asked for them.
Érica: And sorry if I may, and a thing that most people forget. They can ask for help, not just the people who give the order, but for the whole company. You have several teams. Just don't. You don't have just one. You have several ones, and you can always ask help. It's a way of empowering the others, empowering yourself as well.
Bertrand: Particularly on point when we look at the work today in 2023, maybe more than ever, unit empowerment. Because company are going remote and sorry guys to tell you, but the world doesn't know by now how to work great remotely. The world is talking a lot about flex work, about asynchronous communication about remote collaboration, about flex work, but it doesn't work by now.
It has to be built and without empowerment it will not work. What we see people missing, the Y, not understanding the Y, not knowing to whom they can reach to if they need support and help. It quite leads to a disaster that we really observed within the company we work with. By now, they're stuck actually just because this communication doesn't happened anymore.
Érica: Exactly. The simple word of communication, you have to make it common in the company. You have to communicate with your colleagues, with your teams, with everyone. without that, without the communication you will never have the empowerment of the people because you don't know them.
Bernardo: Communication is key. To empower others and yourself, you need to communicate.
Bertrand: Particularly when it comes to communication, we can go to a very specific example that we can give to people is having a company social network, you may have groups based on topic, location group based on affinity geographies, everything.
And we see when we help people support people building these communities, they struggle a lot. Empowering people to be. To become the community leader or the community manager. They want to control everything within the community. Who is posting what? Who is saying what? And they pay less attention to the why of the community or even to the community charter or behavior guidelines.
They just want to control the messages. They want so many administrators to administrate the community. And it's, great sign and a real sign off non-empowerment in the company, which likes the disaster actually, because nobody engages the communities.
Bernardo: They're falling to the dark side.
Érica: Yes, it's the controlling of, 'cause people don't feel they are controlling anything, so if they have any chance, they try to control everything To do the best way they can because nowadays we listen, empower everywhere. You have to empower this. You have to empower that person. You have to empower yourself, everything.
But to really know what is empower, people don't know what is.
Bernardo: I don't know why you need to be empowered, so why you need, you have to empower others, what you have to do to empower yourself or others because it's not explicit.
Bertrand: Yeah, that's it.
[00:22:43] Practical Tips for Improving Empowerment
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Bertrand: Maybe you have some tips and tricks we could give our audience to improve empowerment in the group, in the company, even for themselves. So something very practical they should try tomorrow to improve this.
So essential empowerment.
Érica: Well first you need to talk to other people as well. You need to want to be better.
Bernardo: Exactly like Érica said, give the why, the what, communicate. to take the lead on something,
it's never easy. Never was, never will be, but you cannot wait. you have to empower yourself, your team, everyone in the company. If you want to stay on track and achieve those goals, you cannot just sit idle and wait for that to happen. You need to get up, take a move, and just do it.
Bertrand: Finally is the third one. based on your two tips, making it explicit, talking about it and taking the lead, we see that it's not easy and it doesn't come alone. So if your team, your company doesn't invest in empowerment to the point where it's part of the company culture, but also some.
Root behavior. Also, how the company is organized and also how the company structured. So it's not only saying people, okay, I empower you to do that. It's the world move for the world company, which requires a dedicated investment.
Érica: It's like you said, make it explicit. And be careful to not go to the side of the power.
Bernardo: But take a lead. Don't just empower others by doing nothing. Communicate and move
Érica: Be a leader is always good.
Bernardo: exactly.
[00:24:25] Conclusion and Wrap-up
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Bertrand: So I think we're ready to move. And that was it for this episode we will have a lot more topics andsee everyone in the next episode. I.
Still with us. We hope you. Chose the episode and learn something valuable. We would love to hear from you and continue the discussion on Instagram at Blueways Boutique. We'll find the link in the description. It was Tinkering the Future of Working Life with Érica, Bernardo and Bertrand.
Bernardo: See you next week for new amazing stories.