Chris Barez-Brown, founder, Upping Your Elvis, discusses why understanding the role energy plays could be key to improving management and staff performance
Albert Einstein is an unlikely business guru,but when he pointed out that: “Everything is Energy” he nailed the most pressing issue facing high performing businesses today; Energy.
Personal Energy
Energy is the fuel that gets people jumping out of bed every morning excited by the prospect of another day where they can be creative, inspire others and make a difference.
It pushes people further to live more extraordinary lives by delivering more through their own unique talents. Energy dictates whether a day is great or a total downer.
It’s a finite resource that can rise and fall, and it’s unique to everyone.
But most of all, without the right amount or indeed the right type of energy; your business will fail.
Staff, managers and leaders alike need to learn how to manage personal energy better and deploy it in a way that creates real impact.
The problem: Modern business and human energy clash
Business are traditionally designed around 5 day weeks of around 8 hour days, where the expectations are that by giving it our all we’ll achieve success. Whereas, research shows that as humans we’re designed to operate in 90 minute bursts of energy and then we need a break to re-invigorate before we can go again.
It’s no surprise then that people are burning out, losing focus and cruising through days on autopilot.
This is because most businesses are driven by measures of success that don’t work for us as humans. A business wants more money, more clients, more growth. But study after study show us that for people, happiness creates success. So why track and celebrate winning new clients, new projects and growth, but not the energy and happiness of our people?
If a business gets energy right, the workforce makes extraordinary things happen and has fun doing it. Yet no-one talks about personal energy or that of teams.
And be under no illusions – this stuff really matters.A third of our days on this planet are workdays. If those days do not enrich us, excite us and help us feel as if our talents are being used for good; it’s a horrible waste of life.
Getting our energy right
We all know what it feels like when we’ve got the right energy for something. New ideas come bursting out, our days feel more fun, and we make extraordinary things happen.
And we all know (and admire) someone whohas this energy.Theysee things a bit differently and their outlook means they consistently find newsolutions to problems.They’re always positive, popular and people are attracted to them as they’re more fun to be around.
So how does a business create an army of energised workers?
There are three things business leaders should focus on:
- Awareness:
Our new energy workshop,outlines the four ways that people experience energy, (physical, mental, spiritual and emotional). This helps people to be more aware of what energises them and
what can sap their energy and leave them feeling flat – and how to defend against these.
Once people have an awareness of their own energy and how to manage it, they can break the laws of physics and create more of it.
- Powering-Up
Our purpose is super important to us – in a recent ServiceNow survey more people said they’d ask for more meaningful work than a better work-life balance. When people find their purpose and the things they’re driven to achieve, that clarity is a superpower.
A key part of powering-up energy is demanding feedback. Daily, personal feedback is vital so people know how the stuff they are doing with that energy is landing and what sort of impact it’s having on everyone else. This changes and has to be fine tuned on the go but it is incredibly powerful.
- Deploying
Positive routines deploy energy in the best possible way.We recently launched a digital 5-Day Programme that uses simple daily actions to create huge shifts in energy over a short space of time.
The whole philosophy is that it shouldn’t feel difficult. Don’t add to your to-do-list, but take away. It’s about simple changes that have an impact way beyond the effort required to make the changes.
Creating shifts in energy
From our experience, you can actually do more than just ‘feel’ good energy. There are quite strong metrics. For example, following our workshop and 5-Day programme
- 84% of respondents initiated more positive interactions with colleagues. With 23% more people doing this every day…
- A whopping 96% of people proactively ask for feedback at least once a week
Both are a sure sign that there’s a new energy in these businesses and that their people are taking responsibility for this energy themselves.
There’s more detail on our approach in our free download on getting energy right to unleash extraordinary results. Visit our website to learn more: https://www.uppingyourelvis.com/