I love this term, because it empowers an individual to act, while forcing the same individual to reason why they are acting. In other words, instead of passively waiting for someone to tell you what to do, you must use your own agency to figure it out and act on your own. We all have agency to some degree as humans, while individual professions each have their own defined sphere of autonomy based on one’s training and expertise.
The problem is, some people are afraid of exercising their agency. At it’s most basic level, we all have the power to try and make things better. We all have the power to help others. We all have the power to help ourselves. As long as our intentions are good, we have an obligation to exercise our agency.