Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:00:00]:

You are allowed to be powerful in any situation. I want to tell you today about three different flavors of empowerment that are available to you above the line. When you are being a conscious leader. These positions are the coach, the challenger, and the creator. And up there in that state of flow on the empowerment triangle, anything is possible. The first position on the empowerment triangle, the above the line triangle, is the creator. The entire empowerment triangle is pointing toward the creator role. And the creator is the one who claims all of their personal power to create the outcomes that they most deeply desire.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:00:48]:

How do they do that? Well, they take responsibility. They take responsibility for the choices that they’ve made, including choices about the beliefs that they take on and choose to believe in. Choices about the stories they tell themselves, choices about their mindset, the way they organize their day, the impact that they’ve had on others. What was their responsibility in creating that impact? Often we create circumstances without even realizing we’re doing it. Often the creation of any given circumstance or issue started happening years and years ago. We got on a path that ended us here. We didn’t realize we were doing it, but we did it. And the creator is insanely curious about finding out where was I powerful and I didn’t even know it? Where did I have some hand to play in creating this exact situation? They approach this whole thing with openness curiosity.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:01:45]:

They’re nonjudgmental creators. They take responsibility for everything that happens in their life, including creating baby steps, a plan, a plan of action, actions they can take, actions they can be responsible for. And that means actions that they can be in control of. A creator specifically is not trying to take action in places where they don’t have any control. They understand that that’s wasted effort. They don’t try to control things out of their control. They’re really, really interested, however, in finding out even more elements that are within their sphere of influence, within their sphere of control. As a creator, we really need to consciously choose where to put our attention.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:02:36]:

That’s probably the most important choice that we make as a leader. And we’re making it moment to moment every day. Am I going to focus on what’s broken, what’s missing, what’s not here yet, what’s wrong? What’s in the way, what I’m scared of? Or am I going to focus on where I’m going, what I care about, what I’m passionate about, and this present right here and now moment where all creative possibility exists. The second flavor in the empowerment triangle is the challenger. And what the challenger does is they apply loving pressure and they sometimes use discomfort to provoke others to take action. They call forth something new. And this can look like I believe in you. I see something more in you than you are taking ownership of right now.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:03:37]:

And I see that it’s possible. And I stand for you bringing that forth. I stand for you owning your power. I stand for you taking responsibility. I stand for you courageously becoming self aware or aware of your impact. Aware of the many things that you have control over. Now, the challenger is looking to change patterns that are no longer serving either that person or the situation. They do this by encouraging and kind of holding that mirror up and saying, you need to face what’s no longer of service here.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:04:09]:

They’re not defending their own beliefs, but they’re raising up that mirror and saying this is no longer of service. They’re all about action. So when we’re in challenger mode, we are interested in facilitating action, the kind of action that takes responsibility for outcomes, right? We want to encourage people who are in victim mode to go into that creator mode. So we want to find limiting beliefs like what’s the thing that’s in the way? So say that I’m challenging someone who’s in victim mode, which is one of my favorite things to do as a coach. I’m going to be looking for how are they holding themselves back? What’s the self limiting belief that’s at play here? Let’s move on to the third and final flavor of the empowerment triangle, the coach. Now, by coach, I don’t mean someone like myself, who is a professional coach and gets paid for that as their job. I mean you. I mean that part of you who encourages, invites people to see themselves as powerful and facilitates people in making progress.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:05:11]:

Helps them get clear on what they want and what actions might be involved in getting there. Helps them make baby steps, helps them create plans small and large, but things that are practical and grounded in reality. How can you make it real? But also can you dream bigger? And can you see all of your resourcefulness here? A coach can help people identify resources that are internal and resources that are external. And a coach can help you identify what are all of the things that actually are in your control. And sometimes that might mean how can you take responsibility for creating these here circumstances, this exact situation? How can you take some responsibility for this situation even if you don’t like it being here right now? And can you even appreciate yourself for creating it? In my world, we believe that we create situations, often subconsciously, to design learning experiences for ourself. So I may not like that this happened to me, but in some way I helped create it because I’m trying to wake up to something. My soul is trying to learn something and I’m sick of the pattern I’ve been stuck in before. A coach is not ever trying to fix.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:06:28]:

We don’t see a problem that needs fixing. We see a person who has created a learning situation and is completely capable of creating a new situation and of learning from this one. The cool thing about the Empowerment Triangle is that all three roles, the Creator, the Coach and the challenger, they’re all connected in a specific way. So the central role is the creator role. The Coach sees others as creators and they draw their attention to their creative skills, abilities, resources. They draw their attention to all of that to help them remember that they are a creator and to draw forth more powerful creation from them. So they draw it out of them like you are a creator. Even if you don’t see yourself as one.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:07:19]:

I see you as one. And I am here to hold space for you to flounder around until you find that. And none of that is wrong. You really can feel that from a great coach. The other role, the challenger. The challenger is the one who says, I see more that you could be doing and I’m going to apply pressure by drawing your attention to you are the one making the choices and taking the actions that is leading to these results. So these three roles, the Coach, the Creator and the challenger, these roles, they make up the Empowerment triangle, the above the line triangle. And these are the roles that we can occupy when we are in a state of trust.

Dr. Caneel Joyce [00:07:58]:

Power is a place where we can resolve issues permanently, where we can learn, where we are free to create the life that we want, where we are responsible for our own actions and where we are at ease and in a sense of flow. It is a mindset.