What is the Most Empowering Word?

I was reading an article in a magazine the other day about the power of words to elicit imagery.
It depends on how the words are charged, what meaning we give them according to our experience, assumptions, and cultural references.

A man reads to his wife who is terminally ill. He begins the novel graciously, trying to act out the subtext in the characters. "Oh no," she pleads "not like that, it's too much. I cannot bear to hear."

Instead, she asks that he stop reading the words and start inventing a new language for her. He complies, at first awkwardly, then getting drawn into the game of creating new sounds. Until he looks at her - she is smiling peacefully in a deep sleep.

Too many words are tainted by meaning that our culture and practices - especially marketing practices - have invested in them. Others have been pounded into the ground for every occasion. So much so that they have lost their meaning.

When it comes time to move a team, a group, a company to insight and to action, we are a few words short of powerful. History and the usual metaphors bind us to what was. Take for example the word empowering. Literally, it means (1) to invest with power, especially legal power or official authority and (2) to equip or supply with an ability, to enable. How empowering is that someone else needs to grant the authority? In French and Italian, the term translates as authorize.

Why are we then talking about empowered customers, employees, consumers? Would they have no power if we did not grant it to them?

What other word would you use to signal that you are taking charge? Is it the most self-fulfilling word of the future?

[sunset outside office taken with my iPhone]

Comments

[Ron Shewchuk]

Three words: faith, sympathy and trust.

[Simon]

Interesting thought. In the written form, it would be words conveying how "we" can "succeed".

But in a face to face or verbal context, perhaps it is not the words themselves but how we say them, and how we present ourselves. How words are only one facet of conversation harks back to those studies saying 60-90% of a presentation's impact comes from non verbal cues

Best
Simon

[Bill Gammell]

Very thought provoking. I have two thoughts:

1. We CAN empower customers through the customer experience we deliver. We give customers the power (ammunition?) to speak good or ill of us by how we deliver (or miss) on the customer experience.

2. With that said, maybe the word "empower" does tend to exalt ourselves to more of a "SIMS-like" status. Maybe it's more in tune with "harmonize" (to flower power-ish??) or "align."

Boy, that is a great question.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Ron - I once met a leader who said that people did not earn her trust. She gave it implicitly. It was theirs to lose. I like empathy as well.

@Simon - I think "yes" is a good word and so is "can".

@Bill - I like the idea of providing something worth talking about. Taking action of the positive kind.

[Priyanka]

Hi Valeria,

Very interesting post! I was actually aware of what you are talking about but you have been able to put it down very succinctly which is wonderful.

~Priyanka

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valeria,

"Ownership" - as in:

- own the customer experience
- when something happens, someone has the leadership commitment to say, "I own this", meaning they will see the project to completion and sustainability
- own your relationship with the places you do business

"Own it!"

Joe

[Valeria Maltoni]

Joe:

I like "ownership" a lot. One of the conversations I've had with consultants and organization development experts is about accountability. Even when leaders do not hold themselves accountable - they still are by virtue of the power they have been invested with.