Last time we talked about why there is immense value in revisiting your personal power in our current working environment. You can refresh your memory by reading why it’s time to develop your personal power post here.
In part two of our series, we have several suggestions on how to turn your ‘power’ dial-up.
All too often the starting point revolves around stopping your power leaks.
Believing in yourself and the power you bring is pivotal to the whole process. So often our power dips because we give so much away.
As we work with lots of organisations and their teams, something we notice is that high performers don’t give away their power.
As human beings, we are born powerful. For those of you who spend or have spent any time around children will know this to be true!
So how do we keep our power cup full; consistently? Here are several ideas guaranteed to work.
Ignore OPO’s
Sorry for the jargon phrase but it’s one of my favourites. Many years ago, a mentor I had at the time talked about a significant challenge to an individual’s growth was the impact that ‘other people’s opinions’ had on them. Reframed, what she truly meant was how we let other people’s opinions impact our thoughts and feelings.
All too often we chew ourselves up wondering what others are thinking or what they might think. Fact? For most of the time, they are far too engrossed in themselves for it to matter to them regardless of what you might think.
Establish Boundaries
Have you ever agreed to something at work like a project or an additional element to your role and later regretted it?
Welcome to the world of letting people break down your boundaries; this is a classic way people lose their power.
Also, refusing to communicate what you are thinking or agreeing to ‘do things’ because you feel guilty is a sure sign you have a significant power leak going on.
Recognise that you’re in charge of yourself. Establish healthy boundaries which will give you back control. This idea is not about saying no every time someone asks for your time either.
It’s about being in control of how you respond.
One programme participant had a real struggle with power leaks. After a coaching conversation, he started to ask his manager what the priority was for the tasks he was given.
His manager had no conception of how long specific tasks were taking. Our participant started to respond with; “Adam if you want me to do X now, I will have to stop A, B and C. It will take an additional four hours, and you initially said you wanted A completing today. What do you want me to do?”
Within a matter of weeks, there was a significant shift in our participant’s power level, and interestingly Adam had a different understanding of time and project management too.
Manage Your Thoughts, Words and Emotions
We are human beings who are driven by our thoughts, emotions and the words we say to ourselves.
My plea to you is let them all be good ones.
Have you ever woken up and suddenly your mind is flicked back to all the ‘not so great things’ that have happened this week and in your life in general?
It’s far too easy to live in the past and to keep repeating the same pattern which removes our power.
Take control over the thoughts that occupy your mind, so you don’t give more brainpower to areas of your life that don’t deserve it.
The past is exactly that. You’ll find that very few powerful people spend much time in the past. Why? Because as you do that, surprisingly you bring that exact pattern into your present reality and it has a significant effect on your actions.
If you want something different to happen, you need to do something different.
I am sure you are aware that thoughts create emotions or feelings which leads to action and naturally, results.
Therefore, keep your focus on the future rather than the past and thoughts of when you felt powerless.
Which leads me to the words and phrases we say to ourselves. We are incredibly powerful, and the words we utter are accepted by our subconscious mind and can make a massive difference to what happens to our lives.
Let me ask you, have you ever worked with someone who on the surface appears a victim? I bet you can pinpoint it to their language.
Saying things like, “I had no choice but to say yes,” or “I’ll never be able to get my point across in our team meetings” infers that you’re a victim of unfortunate circumstances. While there will undoubtedly be consequences for the decisions you make, acknowledge that you always have choices.
These three suggestions, once implemented, will shift your power. The question is, when will you start?
Until next time,
Julia
Can We Help?
Zestfor specialises in developing Training programmes and resources scientifically tailored for technical markets – including Pharmaceutical, IT, and Life Sciences.
Our blend of in-classroom, online, and virtual live-stream delivery methods will engage and assure even the most introverted team members from the first meeting – whether face-to-face or virtually. To have a brief chat call us on 0845 548 0833. Alternatively, please email our team here.
