Get to the next level of performance by encountering a fourth dimension in your management style – Manage energy not just time, quality, and money!
Successful companies such as Google and Novo Nordisk know that prioritizing team wellbeing is the key to high performance. Still, most managers only consider Time, Quality, and Money, when prioritizing or deciding. That is how they are trained. However, there is another level.
Eight faces are in front of me on the screen. They are highly intelligent managers, who deliver and perform during difficult conditions. They are attending the first session in our bite-size workshops on team wellbeing. They are already performing well, but they are tired and sometimes stressed. They know that though they do well, they can do much better.
Most leaders want to perform, thrive, and fulfill the expectations of their managers. As a result, many think they perform best if they keep performing all the time. But it’s impossible for the organisms named Homo Sapiens. It harms their brain which results in draining and exhausting people just like the leadership team that is attending the workshop.
It’s hard to give high performance when the fuel tank is empty. Successful companies are well-aware of it. They manage energy not just time and money. They do not just focus on managing performance, but also consider team wellbeing. In successful companies such as Google and Novo Nordisk, the largest biotech company in the world, concepts promoting wellbeing like psychological safety is part of every manager’s training.
However, they are still trying to combat the invisible enemy of severe stress, burnout, and depression. In 2019, it was observed that 15% of working adults had a mental disorder. Further, almost 12 billion working days are annually wasted in the world due to anxiety and depression. This in turn causes a loss in productivity of 1 trillion USD each year.
This means that the next level of leadership should be to “manage time not money and measure team wellbeing”. We say that if you do it with the currency of personal energy, you will get people on board quickly and see results faster.
Your brain’s fuel is energy. It uses 20% of your personal energy each day. So, it is hard to perform well when you are low on energy. Hence, the key to high performance is to manage energy not time. Further, the team’s wellbeing should also be measured in terms of energy.
Let me ask you a few energy questions.
If your answer is yes to just one of these, you have already experienced the importance of personal energy in a team. Thus, it’s essential to manage energy not time or money.
Imagine that you are in a situation where you are managing an important project. New information’s just been raised. It has increased the pressure on you and the whole project team. You need to prioritize things and make some decisions.
Most managers are trained to think within the scope triangle where factors such as time, money, and quality are key. Whenever they face trouble or pressure, they tend to evaluate options based on these three criteria: time, money, and quality. But something is missing in this picture, a fourth dimension.
Following our method of “manage energy not time and money”, the managers from the workshop realize the huge potential that can be released if they manage the energy level in the teams – as the leaders, this includes managing their energy as well. The effect of this is not only better results, higher engagement, and retention of talent, but also increased wellbeing.
When the brain’s fuel is energy and people’s brains are the most important asset for corporations, it confides logic not to encounter personal energy as a factor in demanding situations.
Now reimagine the situation. Would you prioritize differently, if personal energy (including your own) was a key factor along with time, money, and quality?
Following our method of “manage energy not time and money”, the managers from the workshop realize the huge potential that can be released if they manage the energy level in the teams – as the leaders, this includes managing their energy as well. The effect of this is not only better results, higher engagement, and retention of talent, but also increased wellbeing.
When the brain’s fuel is energy and people’s brains are the most important asset for corporations, it confides logic not to encounter personal energy as a factor in demanding situations.
Now reimagine the situation. Would you prioritize differently, if personal energy (including your own) was a key factor along with time, money, and quality?
The image of squeezing a lemon is positive to some, while negative to others. Now imagine that you are squeezing the lemon until it breaks. If you are not going to use it anymore then it’s not a problem. However, if the lemon is a real person, then what?
We say that it’s the only sustainable way if you want to do more than squeeze the lemon i.e., the energy of your people. If you want to keep your best employees, have a high engagement, want your people to speak up, want them to give their best, want people who walk the extra mile when needed, or want to have people who solve the real problems instead of pushing them under the carpets– then manage energy not time and money.
Remember they cannot perform well all the time without crashing – just like you cannot run one sprint after the other. You need to recharge energy in between. All athletes know that. Do you too?
In conclusion, the key to the next level of performance, a sustainable level of performance is to manage energy not time, money, and quality. Even in teams that are already performing well. There is a lot to win when you attend to team wellbeing in the shade of energy. We also do training with passion because it is our vision to help people don’t just to perform but, sparkle. This, by unlocking the power of personal energy in all organizations to create long-term value in a sustainable way. If you would like to be updated with new articles and videos, sign up for our mailing list. Your mail is not shared with anyone and there are advantages to being on the list e.g., getting a mini course in your personal leadership.
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