BOOK YOUR CONSULTATION:
https://calendly.com/nikkikettcoaching/free-1-hour-coaching-chat
The importance of balancing empathy and empowerment.
You can have empathy for someone and not get stuck in their story.
I was a college coach for 9 years and constantly was learning the boundary between being empathetic and empowering.
Sometimes I needed to say the triggering thing and be willing to not be liked.
I still do that now – except my clients can feel the love behind what I’m saying when I’m direct in my coaching… I’d describe my coaching style as direct but loving.
I wanted to talk about this topic because I think it is always a balance and it works both ways…
Who do you go to for what?
Friendships – who do you go to for what. There’s the one friend that is going to give you endless love no matter what you decide. And there’s the friend that you go to when you need someone to tell it like it is.
You have to be willing to trust WHAT YOU NEED. Sometimes the biggest transformations can come from being a bit triggered by something someone says, even if it makes you angry.
Sometimes that just keeps you spinning.
What do your relationships need?
I work with a lot of coaches in athletics and we often reflect on how being too empathetic means they are “jumping in the pool with their athletes”
Their value is their empathy, but not when it becomes overused. This is really common with women because we are used to “swooping in” and fixing things.
We can feel the burden sometimes that it is on us to make everything okay.
Sometimes it’s okay for there to be conflict, and it’s okay to let other people do their own work.
The other side of this coin is by overusing empowerment … by getting frustrated to the point where you just want someone to DO WHAT YOU SAY and you’ve lost all empathy.
I have been here before too. When you are stuck being frustrated by someone it’s hard to still have empathy and realize that it’s up to the other people to do their own work.
Think about when you maybe have overused empathy which leads to disempowerment.
Or when you have overused empowerment which leads to being controlling.
How can you do your own work and allow yourself to sit in the discomfort of offering support or encouragement but then leaving it up to the other person to take appropriate action.
This is what it looks like to set boundaries as well. When you master the balance of empathy and compassion, you’ll trust yourself enough to compromise in relationships (seeing their perspective) but to also stand up for yours (and let other people do their work).
Living in this way creates a freedom. Ultimately we can’t change anyone else’s emotions or responses, we can only take responsibility for our own.