Leaders set the tone. Their demeanor, attitude, and perspective affect those around them and that gives them both a tremendous opportunity and a huge responsibility.
When you are acting in your leadership role, especially, you need to be aware of your energy. Your energy is always an influence.
Recall a time when you walked into someone’s office, room, or wherever they were, by themselves, and you could immediately sense that something was wrong. Don’t minimize the fact that you could pick up on this, even before they revealed a facial expression or uttered a word. This is what I mean by one’s “energy.”
The first priority for you as you seek to improve your leadership excellence is to practice and get extremely good at NOTICING YOUR ENERGY. Have a clear picture in mind of your ideal state of energy, one in which you feel strong, optimistic, and confident—or however you would describe the thoughts and feelings that you’d like to dwell in as much as humanly possible (no one is perfect, of course).
A business owner I know decided to monitor his energy with the help of his watch alarm. Every half hour, he is reminded to pause and notice what is going on in his mind and body. He described to me what he does next: “If I don’t feel strong, it’s because I’m indulging in something that weakens me. My intention, then, is to shift my energy.”
What are some things you do to shift your energy (some call this moving to a higher-level vibration)? Some efforts that pay off include:
- Change of scene (take your laptop and work from the patio for a while).
- Stop. Change. Start. (If something you are doing or reading is fueling anxiety, for example, switch to a completely different task.)
- Keep a journal (very popular, many swear by it).
- Read or write humor, jokes, limericks, haikus.
- Sure-fire method to shift your energy: Nature. (Walk outside to a green or waterside area.)
- Call a friend and listen for how you can be supportive to them/their needs.
As a leader, you not only can be more effective and productive when you keep your energy positive, you will help others just by them being around you. But sometimes, you may need to use interventions to help someone shift their energy. Refer to the ideas above and you may opt to ask an employee to go to lunch with you, or you may hold a quick meeting and ask each person to share a “win” they’ve had this week. (I love to do that at the family dinner table.)
In Quantum Warrior: The Future of the Mind, John Kehoe devotes a chapter or more to why and how to shift energy. “Jesus knew how to shift energy,” Kehoe writes, “in fact he was a master at it, and his teachings reveal his unorthodox methods for doing this: Return good for evil. Love for hate…most of the spiritual teachings we have been taught, when you strip away the dogma, are actually enlightened ways of working with energy.”
What is crucial is to notice when energy needs a boost (for yourself or others) and to act on your intention to create a shift. The more you practice, the more you’ll find this to be a natural and habitual way of being. Your return on investment will be colossal: huge, a foundation with very strong support.
