How well do you manage your energy at work?
How well do you handle the transitions between work and home?
How much attention do you give to the skillful management of your leadership energy?

Energy is something we often fail to pay attention to. We may take our energy for granted or we may just bottom out when we are exhausted. Yet energy is an essential resource to achieve our objectives and to build and maintain our vital relationships. Energy comes in many forms: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and organizational.

If you are excited to get a head start on managing energy I highly recommend Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz’s – The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.

Here is what Marcus Buckingham had to say about the book

Fantastic! At the heart of this book is a simple truth: the secret to lasting success — individually and organizationally — lies in how we manage our energy. This is a phenomenal insight that most of us ignore. Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr provide a very practical map for marshaling our energy — physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually — to live much more productive and fulfilling lives.

Part of this strength-based leadership blog will be devoted to a closer examination of leadership energy and an outline of approaches and methods to work with our energy, enhance the energy of others, and build the energy of our organization.

For a quick energy boost click into the energy management tidbits section on my website.

To Esther

This blog is primarily focused on organizational leadership yet today’s post honors a quiet yet powerful family and community leader. Esther was a former neighbour who died this week at 45 years of age. She leaves behind her husband and her two children ages 16 and 14.

Esther was a stay-at-home mom but this did not preclude her from being an active and engaging leader in her family and community. In many ways Esther personified the 3 qualities of strength-based leadership: strength, love and energy.

Esther was a strong woman. She may have been small in size but she was large in heart. She had an inner spiritual strength that was quiet and humble yet always evident. She transformed her house into a welcoming comfortable home and Esther guided her family and children with both subtlety and grace.

Esther was not a leader who was out front trying to pull people along, rather Esther stood beside you. Esther lived with cancer for many years yet she demonstrated phenomenal grit, strength and determination. You always got the sense that this was not even so much for herself but for the people she loved so dearly.

You knew Esther loved her family and loved life. The look in her eye as she watched her children communicated so much caring. She was very present when she spoke with you and she had a lilt in her voice that always made you feel a little lighter after talking with her.

Even in illness Esther had energy. She was busy making food for the school even as her personal energy was dwindling. Each interaction with Esther was an authentic example of a high quality interaction that rekindled your energy.

Esther, you will be missed and you demonstrated to me that leadership is not a role; it is a way of being with both yourself and others.

Thank you.

Do you put your heart into leadership?

A recent study presented at the American Heart Association suggested that unsociable men were more likely to die from heart disease and stroke than more socially engaged men. Social avoidance increased the risk of death from cariovascular disease in men by about 40%.

We must be very careful how we interpret research but this research seems to indicate that caring and connecting might have health benefits for the leader.

Jane Dutton suggested that the single biggest factor to energize your workplace was to create and sustain High-Quality Connections at work. A High-Quality Connection is based on mutual positive regard, trust, and active engagement on both sides.

Connections are pathways to caring in leadership and being connected might just be a heart-felt approach to leadership.

Love is a central pillar in strength-based leadership. This post will offer a perspective on love in leadership from Tim Sanders. In future posts, this blog will examine, illustrate, and offer ideas on the role of love in leadership.

Tim Sanders had a recent New York Time Bestseller entitled: Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. I recommend the book. Click here to read a short outline of the book from the Fast Company website.

Mr. Sanders uses the phrase lovecat to outline love in leadership. This means:

Offer your wisdom freely. Give away your address book to everyone who wants it. And always be human.

In other words: share your knowledge, network and compassion.

Here is the beginning of the Fast Company article:

The most powerful force in business isn’t greed, fear, or even the raw energy of unbridled competition. The most powerful force in business is love. It’s what will help your company grow and become stronger. It’s what will propel your career forward. It’s what will give you a sense of meaning and satisfaction in your work, which will help you do your best work.

The Fast Company article might be a beginning but are you ready to keep it going?

I encourage you to keep returning as the topics of strength, love, and energy in leadership are developed and you are given keys to your own leadership development.

Are you willing to fall in love with leadership and make leadership your love?

I recently had the honor of hearing Mr. Gilbert Nolasco, the Vice-President of Integration for RONA, Inc. speak at Manitoba Quality Network conference. RONA is the leading Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, home improvement and gardening products. Mr. Nolasco’s topic was: Vision, Value and Coherence: The Essential Partners for Success.

RONA refers to itself as The How-to People. Many Canadian go to RONA for their home improvement projects yet Mr. Nolasco came to Manitoba from Montreal (in near blizzard-like conditions) to share his “how-to” use vision, values and coherence as partners for success.

One of Mr. Nolasco’s core messages was to stay focused and stay simple. This was a powerful message given RONA’s incredible expansion in the last 6 years – from 9,000 employees to 22,000 employees and from $1.2 billion in retail sales to $4.8 billion in retail sales.

One part of his presentation that related directly to the focus of this blog was his outline of strong leadership. RONA’s 5 key points for strong leadership are:
1. Set the goals
2. Show what is important
3. Give direction to the actions
4. Stay focused
5. Be available

Although there is nothing earth shattering about these key points I believe the strength resides beyond the articulation of the points to the day-to-day lived action on these points by the RONA leadership. They have given a solid home to these leadership strengths.

Remember Mr. Nolasco said to stay focused and keep it simple even while RONA was experiencing rapid growth as sales quadrupled in six years and the number of employees more than doubled.

Here are 4 leadership questions for you to answer:
1. What are my 5 keys to strong leadership?
2. Can I stay focused on these keys?
3. Can I make sure the points become lived actions?
4. Can I keep it simple while experiencing dramatic growth?