High Voltage Energized Leaders

You know motivating energy when you see it. When people see you getting closer to achieving a tough goal, this unleashes collective energy that drives performance to a whole new level.

Leadership is how you interact with everyone, as you are visible to everyone. Energized leaders develop a personal effective style of leadership that positively influences and changes not only yourself, but those with whom you work and interact, as well as your organization as a whole.

You have probably witnessed first-hand how low personal energy can prevent you and your team from being as productive as you would like to be. Even highly motivated and hard working executives are not immune from the negatively affects of low person energy levels. These can leave you feeling mentally and physically tired as you struggle to keep up with your work. Studies have shown that 1 out of every 2 executives (2009) report that their low energy levels prevent them from being effective and productive as they need to be in their work. There are an alarming number of executives who struggle to keep on top of their work each day.

There is a critical distinction between someone who has a high-energy personality and someone who is a leader whose style in influencing others sparks ingenuity and infuses energy. Which one are you?

You know motivating energy when you see it. Energized leaders generate inspiring company-wide performance, where employees help each other tap into creative innovation because they want to. While you can find driven people everywhere, high-octane environments are fertile grounds for teams to create extraordinary results. Research shows the key to outstanding performance is ENERGY (the ability to reach and achieve your full potential).

In keeping pace with organizational changes and sky-rocketing workloads, you need to:

• Stay fresh and focused in stressful work situations.

• Concentrate and stay focused on your work more easily.

• Use your higher personal energy levels more productively.

• Give yourself an energy boost whenever you feel yourself getting rundown. (no energy drinks).

• Completely unwind and release your tension and stress at the end of each day.

• Create energizing, productive and positive relations at work and at home.

• Avert burnout and stay on top of your work.

• Be resilient and creative under stressful conditions so that you can respond quickly and easily to unanticipated crises as they arise.

“High energy creates the context for possibility”, says Thomas Ebeling, pharmaceuticals CEO at Novartis. “If you intend to unleash the energy of your people, you must start with great purpose and then set ambitious targets… as a leader, you put time and energy into optimizing the blend of people – not just based on expertise, but based on what sparks their best work.”

Without energy, the wheels of your leadership and organization come to a screeching halt. Your employees will become less productive as well. Employees who are enthusiastic and know their contributions are valued are more likely to be self-motivated and propose innovative ideas.

Successful organizations have energetic employees. Nothing energizes them more than public praise and recognition for their accomplishments. Try giving incentives to employees for the ideas and work they do.

Start a New Trend – Random Celebrations

As leader, it is your responsibility to keep your employees motivated and to keep productivity high. Both of these are enormous challenges. Keep the champagne on ice and non-alcoholic champagne too and celebrate with your employees from time-to-time.

As you celebrate the wins, recognize your employees who made contributions to the win itself. Whether you give a certificate, a gift card, or a meal to your employees, make sure everyone is recognized for something they did.

Know where and how to direct energy in your organization. To get the extraordinary results you want, get your people to see their areas and expertise in new ways. Pay close attention to what really matters. While sparking your people to ratchet up their day-to-day decisions and actions, you still need to monitor where they are in the work they are doing.

Unleash energy that drives a whole new level of performance. Incorporate an individual’s values with their desires to make a difference. Include the idea that each person works better by using their personality preferences (their actual strengths) and the results are being more effective and productive in getting work completed. Unleashing energy is not about creating something new--it's about unblocking this enormous natural energy that already exists.

Remember: You cannot inspire and energize people with memos, mission statements, data and analysis, charts, goals and objectives, measurements, systems, or processes. Try something new.