Well -- I have to jump in on this one!
In the early 90's we interviewed about 40 people from different companies
and in different functions, levels areas of expertise, etc., and asked
them what they needed to learn about influence. The answer after much
analysis and many months of refinement and concept testing came to three
areas -- Orgnaizational "Street Smarts" -- defined as navigating the
organization, the influencing skills themselves, and Self-Empowerment --
what people described as managing their own mindset. Several years ago we
renamed the Self-empowerment piece and now call it Leading Yourself
through Personal Power because empowerment as a word now has a negative
impact.
The few pieces of this thread I have been able to scan are talking about
two different types of empowerment --structural empowerment and personal
empowerment. You can have a great deal of personal empowerment and still
get blocked by the lack of structural empowerment in the system -- you
just don't complain about it! If you lack personal empowerment you moan
and groan about it and become frozen because of it.
The research on successful people (sorry -- can't remember the name of
study or author) states that these people see organizational roadblocks as
a normal part of organizational life and build it into their planning. If
you look at our design for the influence course it deals with the
structural empowerment issues under Organizational "Street Smarts".
Personally -- sometimes I make a great victim, sometimes I am superwoman,
sometimes I only cope, other times I absolutely excel. I guess it makes
me human. I rarely moan about structural empowerment issues except when
it comes to politics -- I have a hard time believing my voice counts. But
I do stay engaged anyway. If I think of the times I am strong -- it comes
from self-love and acceptance which leads to love and acceptance of
others. When I am weak I someto
Sherri
sherri@maloufinc.com Tel:603-672-0355
LMA, Inc Fax:603-673-7120
--Sherri Malouf <sherri@maloufinc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>