IBEX.Media - stock.adobe.comAt the risk of readers thinking, Duh, everyone knows that, I admit to learning something new last year while training to run a marathon: Diet has a significant impact on our energy levels. This epiphany happened about 10 miles into a Saturday morning run when I began struggling to make every stride. And it wasn’t the typical running struggles that must be pushed through; I had run out of gas and could barely move.
Later that day, trying to make sense of what happened and worried that the same thing would happen during the race, it hit me that I had eaten a high protein, low carbohydrate dinner the night before running. Could diet really make that much difference? The following Friday night, I had a high-carbohydrate pasta dinner, and that Saturday, while the running was still difficult, I had the energy to reach my long-run goal. Experimenting with carbohydrates in the following weeks kept producing the same result. I knew about the importance of carbohydrates but gained first-hand experience with them, and their impact is powerful.
Just like runners need energy to reach their goals, your team needs energy to reach its potential. Unfortunately, your team does not get its work-related energy from carbohydrates; it gets it from you, its leader.
Some leaders do not like the energizer role, but frankly, that doesn’t change anything. Whether or not a leader likes the responsibility, he or she either provides energy to the team or de-energizes it. And that energy, or lack thereof, significantly impacts team results.
Here are some things leaders can do to help energize their teams.
Create Clarity
The best leaders provide clarity around their organization’s mission, their “Why,” values and objectives. Lack of clarity creates an untold amount of wasted time and money, but clarity around these four things is very energizing. At Correct Craft, our mission of “Building Boats to the Glory of God” was set by our founder nearly a century ago. Our “Why” is “Making Life Better.” Our values are clearly communicated on our culture pyramid, which I have written about and is on our website. Our objectives are clearly stated in our strategic plans and budgets. No one on our team should be unclear about what is important to us or what he or she should be doing. Clarity is powerful and energizing.
Having a Higher Purpose
In his outstanding book Start with Why, Simon Sinek explains the importance of an organization knowing its “Why.” At Correct Craft, it’s “Making Life Better,” and it drives everything we do; hardly a day goes by without either me or someone else on our team mentioning it. People want to be part of an organization with a higher purpose. It’s very energizing.
Be an Optimist
No one wants to follow a pessimist. In his excellent book Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman writes about the power of optimism. People want a bright future. Optimism provides energy, and an optimistic leader can use that energy to turbocharge an organization.
Don’t Wear Feelings on Your Sleeve
When you are irritated, frustrated, having a bad day, or are in any other way emotionally angsty, keep it to yourself. Most leaders discount their emotions’ impact on their team, but the effect is multiples more than members realize. I know it is hard. Like most people, leaders want others to empathize with how they feel, but when a leader transfers negative emotions to their team, the cost is high.
Be a High-Affirmation Leader
People get tremendous energy from knowing their leader thinks they are doing well and appreciates them. Some leaders believe that affirmation will cause team members to think too highly of themselves and slack off. That is crazy. Other leaders have trouble giving anyone credit, no matter how well-deserved. That is sad. My experience is that employees appreciate affirmation; it makes them more loyal and gives them a boatload of energy.
And to dive a little deeper regarding affirming employees, don’t wait until an objective is reached before using affirmation as an energizer. Affirming behavior in the right direction is also very energizing.
Related to being a high-affirmation leader, two books will help you expand your thinking related to this topic. In the excellent book The Gap and the Gain, the authors explain how affirmation for progress in the right direction provides your team energy to keep working toward their ultimate goal and the confidence to innovate. In her book Rebel Talent, Harvard professor Francesca Gino explains why leaders should manage employees’ strengths, not weaknesses.
Being an energizer may not come naturally or easily for you, but it is your job to provide energy to your team. Being an energizer has a tremendous return on investment; if you are sincere, the energy you provide your team will drive great results.
While I’m not a huge sports fan, I have had opportunities to attend many significant sporting events. In 2020, at the Super Bowl in Miami, my son-in-law and I were sitting with a group of Kansas City Chiefs fans. The energy related to the game was off the charts, not just in our section but in the entire stadium. While it’s hard to compare a workday to a Super Bowl, imagine if we could capture even a tiny part of that energy. If we could, our results would stretch beyond what we can even imagine.
I have been blessed with a lot of personal energy, so providing energy to an organization may come easier to me than some leaders. However, a leader must find the best way to give the energy his or her team needs, whether easy or hard. As leaders, we want our teams to accomplish extraordinary things. To achieve the extraordinary, a team needs a lot of energy. That energy comes from its leaders.
This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue.
