The Most Skilful Leaders Manage Their Energy
I’ll be forever grateful to the sense of guilt that led to me accidentally discovering The Energy Project.
My brother’s 30th birthday was a small affair: me, my brother, our respective girlfriends at the time, plus two of his friends. And a lot of the discussion was about the project they had just finished working on: an interview series with some of the most cutting edge thinkers in business, psychology and spirituality. And this was in the time before interview series were everywhere.
Which brings us to the guilt: you see, I hadn’t listened to a single interview.
But when I got home, I did. And that is partly what put me on the path to this blog and the work that surrounds it. (Listen to my appearance on the fantastic Secret Resume Podcast to hear more about that interview series and some of the other things that formed me.)
And in episode two, I learned about The Energy Project.
Now, more than a decade later, I’ve taught The Energy Project’s framework to leaders in many different industries. You can read an article in detail about it here.
This week, as I was thinking about why I value it so much, I realised it came back to something core; something that is easily forgotten.
Managing my energy is what enables me to be at my most skilful more often.
So if we don’t manage our energy, we are robbing ourselves of our potential.
I remember Jordan Hall, who is clearly on my mind at the moment, saying that something like 2/3 of the people in the USA are dehydrated at any one time.
He was talking about what he saw as one of the must crucial aspects of dealing with the complexity of the 21st Century: in his words, are we sovereign?
Other people would call sovereign being centred; I published three draft chapters of a book where I call it being our Higher Selves: the most skilful, nimble, noble version of you. The You you are on your best days.
In the 21st Century, as Jennifer Garvey Berger might say, the minds we have that evolved for simpler times get caught in all kinds of traps. These have a habit of pulling us out of our sovereignty, away from our higher selves, throwing us off centre.
When this happens we react instead of responding; we are pulled into our threat state instead of our social engagement state.
We are below the line instead of above the line.
And when we are like that, we operate far less skilfully than our best.
I can feel it in my body when I’m like that.
In the morning, when I wake up, I often feel more anxious. If a tough thought comes to me, it triggers me; it stays with me; it goes round and round my head.
And then I eat breakfast (a really healthy breakfast) and it bothers me less.
And then I exercise, and it bothers me less.
If I’m lucky I have some time outside, and it bothers me less.
And then I drink my morning coffee and connect to some inspirational reading, and it bothers me less.
And then I coach someone, and it bothers me less.
I was struck when I heard Dr Eve Poole delivering a talk to emerging leaders many years ago, as she talked about the importance of refuelling, especially if we have a challenging day coming up.
This is the crucial thing to understand: only be refuelling ourselves can we resource ourselves to deal with what the world may throw at us.
That requires repair as well as rupture.
It requires refuelling as well as spending energy.
In every moment we are dehydrated - perhaps you are one of the 2/3 - we are less well-resourced, less sovereign and more likely to slip into threat state, from where we react unskilfully and clumsily instead of responding skilfully and nimbly.
Whenever we are drained from too much split attention; whenever we are starved of meaningful relationships where we are valued; whenever we are disconnected from the bigger purpose of our work for too long…
Whenever we are not physically looked after…
In all those situations and more, our ability to skilfully deal with what the world throws at us is lessened.
That’s when we snap at our colleagues, our children or the person serving us coffee.
It’s when we make clumsy decisions we will later regret, and damage relationships.
It’s when we lose time and energy to wasted worry.
Instead, remember to refuel.
Remember to manage your energy.
Your potential as a leader, an entrepreneur, a parent, a creator… your potential depends on it.
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PS If you want 2025 to connect you more deeply to your inner sense of integrity and honour, then you might be interested in my latest long-read article. It’s about Mohamed Al-Fayed, Enron and Omar Little from The Wire. It’s called A Man Got to Have a Code: https://www.robbieswale.com/writing/2024/10/11/a-man-got-to-have-a-code-leading-with-honour-iii
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This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.