Hello, my friend! How are you? If you're out of time or "in a rush", go to the last paragraph of this text for a fast answer.

In times of immediate responses and connection 24 hours a day, talking about long-term transformation is a risk! But… at Você Aprende Agora we believe you can (and must!) dream big, and make a daily effort to get better every day. This is our mission - seeing you speaking English and being a Leader wherever you go. "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" was written by John Maxwell in 1998, and its goal is to improve your skills as a Leader.

Last classes we talked about the first 11 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership:

1- Law of the Lid;

2- Law of Influence;

3- Law of Process;

4- Law of Navigation;

5- Law of Addition;

6- Law of Solid Ground;

7- Law of Respect;

8- Law of Intuition;

9- Law of Magnetism;

10- Law of Connection;

11- Law of Inner Circle.

Today we'll talk about the twelfth law: the Law of Empowerment. The author says that only secure leaders give power to others and at this point, you already know your value and (I believe it!) can start empower the ones around you. If you're not secure about yourself, you might feel threatened. I guarantee: empower others is an investment, my friend.

"If leaders want to be successful, they have to be willing to empower others", John Maxwell says. As a leader, it's your job to help people reach their potential, and that means you must encourage, help and give power to them. The author writes about 3 barriers to empowerment, and I'll share them here with you, so you can be careful about your feelings and attitudes:

Barrier 1: desire for job security;

Barrier 2: resistance to change;

Barrier 3: lack of self-worth.

Empower others, not you. "The only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable". It may sound a paradox, but this sentence explains that you'll be much more valuable when you share your knowledge and power with others so they become more prepared (and eventually do the things you're doing now). When you raise people you develop a pattern of achievement, excellence, leadership. Empowerment encourages people to grow and innovate. Do you normally give autonomy to the ones around you? Comment here, my friend. See you next class!