Cathy Liska A quick search online gave closely related definitions for empower and empowerment with a fascinating nuance:
Empower:
- give (someone) the authority or power to do something.
- make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights
Empowerment:
- authority or power given to someone to do something.
- the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights.
The fascinating nuance is that in the first one, the definition is about give someone or make someone and in the second definition the focus is on yourself having or your own process of becoming.
What does this tell us? During coaching certification, we learn that coaching is all about the client and that as coaches, we empower clients. The clients gain empowerment by being empowered and becoming stronger, more confident, controlling their own life, and claiming their rights.
The International Coach Federation’s definition of coaching includes the word empower: “a strategic partnership in which the coach empowers the client to clarify goals, create action plans, move past obstacles, and achieve what the client chooses.”
Throughout the coaching certification, the techniques learned and practiced truly empower the coaching client. As a coach, ask yourself how you apply the coaching competencies during coaching sessions to empower the client. Come back to read the next blog for more!
