|
The way that CEOs create, convey, and manage energy throughout the organization can mean the difference between delivering high performance and constantly missing targets.
Energy operates as a two-way current that travels throughout an organization. Starting with the CEO, it reaches all the way to the front line—and even beyond, to outside stakeholders—through a series of face-to-face and increasingly viral transmissions. Leaders can use energy to infuse others with purpose, to impart meaning, and to encourage the pursuit of goals. Energy is also the means by which leaders receive feedback from both within and outside the organization. It is the byproduct of connectivity, preparation, and intent.
What’s more, energy is a palpable force. “I have learned over the last 11 years that the energy I brought to any situation was reflected and absorbed by the team,” one CEO said. “I have become more conscious of the power of my energy and more respectful of its effect on other people than I was before.”
CEOs who harness energy accelerate value creation, while those who deplete energy or allow it to dissipate struggle to achieve their goals.
But despite the importance of managing energy effectively, many leaders have so far focused on only part of the task—the sources of energy rather than its uses. The emphasis has been on working with the CEO to maintain proper health and wellness habits; to set aside time for renewal and recharging; and to apply athletic-training principles to executive development. These aspects of creating and managing energy are all important, but they miss the broader and more powerful application of energy to initiate positive change. “As CEO, there is no such thing as throwing a pebble in the pond; everything you throw in the pond is a boulder,” one top executive told us.
To understand this critical but misunderstood concept, we recently interviewed 50 current and former CEOs of companies as varied as West Coast startups, Fortune 500 members, and nonprofit organizations. We asked them how they generate and transmit energy, as well as how they perceive and shape the overall energy levels of their organizations. Nearly all of them said that managing energy was one of the most critically important aspects of their jobs. Four dimensions of energy emerged from these interviews:
- Energy is contagious. In every interaction, CEOs send out energy. This energy can be positive or negative—and it doesn’t affect just the immediate recipient. Rather it amplifies across the organization through word of mouth and social media, ultimately rebounding to the CEO. A negative meeting with a CEO, or even a misunderstood hallway conversation, is rarely self-contained. Social media guarantees that past encounters—whether positive or negative—now project into the future.
- Energy is a force for value creation. Positive energy creates employee engagement, alignment, and agility. It instills self-confidence and a sense of purpose within the organization. Energy unleashes capacity and improves an organization’s ability to execute on strategy by tapping into people’s reserves of discretionary effort.
- Encouraging Bolder Moves. CEOs can instill confidence in an organization. They can help people transition from fearing failure to taking prudent risks.
- Increasing Dynamism and Adaptability. CEOs who can channel their energy, stay in sync with their organization, and employ the right level of energy for the setting can create positive momentum. Organizations will move faster and with greater certainty.
- Generating Greater Productivity. Energy is closely related to alignment and employee engagement, the willingness of employees to commit discretionary effort to their jobs.
- Expanding Organizational Capacity. Energy can unlock latent capacity in an organization by creating a sense of urgency and expectation and by providing a laser-like focus on the most critical initiatives.
- Energy is a choreography. Positive energy does not just happen. It is deliberately designed and generated. Many of the CEOs we interviewed homed in on the preparation and thought that goes into critical meetings, conversations, body language, settings, and messages that can amplify across the organization. Here are some practical suggestions that CEOs use to manage their personal as well as their organization’s energy.
- Review your calendar to identify energy-draining and energy-renewing activities.
- Stay curious. Several CEOs mentioned the role of curiosity in refueling and as an antidote to the routine of the job.
- Establish limits, especially when traveling. Several CEOs talked about how draining it can be to hold numerous back-to-back meetings. “You don’t want to line up four or five stressful events in a row, if you can avoid it,” a former CEO said. A number of CEOs who told us that they were natural introverts said that they consciously manage their calendars so they do not need to be “on” for long stretches of time.
- Plan meetings to maximize energy output.
- Practice, practice, practice. Successful CEOs leave nothing to chance when they participate in meetings or interactions that can create positive energy, such as town halls or investor presentations.
- Slay the energy vampires. All organizations have some people who simply suck the energy out of a room. They are the constant naysayers, and they need to be eliminated.
- Energy needs a gauge. CEOs need to understand whether they are transmitting the right level of energy—too much can be as damaging as too little—and receive feedback about the overall quality and level of energy in the organization. They also need to recognize when to pause and reflect and when to focus outward.
Skills for managing energy are not easy to acquire. But they are increasingly as critical to the success of CEOs as are the abilities to raise capital, close an M&A deal, or launch a new strategy. The most successful CEOs are aware of the ebb and flow of energy within themselves and their organizations, and they consciously seek to manage it through perception, practice, and policies. As one CEO said, “Energy plays an important role in bringing your best self forward.”
|
The silo effect occurs when separate departments or teams within an organization don’t communicate effectively with each other – and productivity suffers because of it.
Despite the fact that employees are more technologically interconnected than ever before, the silo effect continues to be a problem in offices of all types. Don’t believe it? Check out these stats:
- 39% of employees within a surveyed group believe that there isn’t enough collaboration between people in their organization.
- 86% of polled executives and employees blame a lack of collaboration or bad communication for team problems and failures.
- Less than 50% of respondents thought their organizations effectively and honestly discussed issues with employees.
While individual employees within different areas might not work together on a day-to-day basis, it’s important that the managers of these separate teams do.
Meaningful creative collaboration between employees with various skill sets is another great way to facilitate long-term communication. Give employees the chance to work closely together on large-scale projects that matter. This will not only lead to excellent work, but will also help create a sense that everyone involved is building something special together – and these types of shared experiences forge real bonds.
It’s 2016, and gone are the days of sending hundreds of Word documents back and forth via an endless email string. Most companies have a chat platform to help them stay connected with colleagues during the day.
There are many tools out there specifically designed to facilitate communication between employees wherever they are. And when you’re trying to open up lines of communication between separated groups, convenience and efficiency are especially important because everyone has to be on the same page.
Differentiation across departments and teams is a good thing, but sometimes it can also be beneficial to create a mashup of skills and duties.
The technology landscape has completely changed our ideas of certain company roles. This means that many professionals have had to venture outside their comfort zones as roles shift along with trends. You can’t have someone on the phone telling people one thing, while another department is tweeting out totally opposing information. In situations like these, cross-team collaboration is an absolute must.
Providing an enjoyable and seamless experience for clients, customers and business partners should be enough motivation to start bringing your employees together a little more.
|
- Smile more
According to PsyBlog, smiling can improve our attention and help us perform better on cognitive tasks: "Smiling makes us feel good, which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically. When this idea was tested by Johnson et al (2010), the results showed that participants who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which required seeing the whole forest rather than just the trees." - Exercise for seven minutes
Think exercise is something you don't have time for? Think again. Check out this seven-minute workout from The New York Times. That's a workout any of us can fit into our schedules. - Sleep more
We know that sleep helps our body recover from the day and repair itself and that it helps us focus and be more productive. It turns out sleep is also important for happiness. - Spend more time with friends and family
Not staying in touch with friends and family is one of the top five regrets of the dying. If you want more evidence that time with friends is beneficial for you, research proves it can make you happier right now, too. - Go outside more often
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor recommends spending time in the fresh air to improve your happiness: "Making time to go outside on a nice day also delivers a huge advantage; one study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather not only boosted positive mood, but broadened thinking and improved working memory ... " - Help other people
One of the most counterintuitive pieces of advice I found is that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others. In fact, 100 hours per year (or two hours per week) is the optimal time we should dedicate to helping others in order to enrich our lives. - Plan a trip (even if you don't ever take it)
As opposed to actually taking a holiday, simply planning a vacation or break from work can improve our happiness. A study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as people enjoy the sense of anticipation: "In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks. After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people." - Meditate
Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, clarity, and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm. It turns out it's also useful for improving your happiness: "In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the participants' brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank." - Move closer to work
Our commute to work can have a surprisingly powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that we tend to commute twice a day at least five days a week makes it unsurprising that the effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy. - Practice gratitude
This is a seemingly simple strategy, but one I've found to make a huge difference to my outlook. There are lots of ways to practice gratitude, from keeping a journal of things you're grateful for, sharing three good things that happen each day with a friend or your partner, or going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you. - And the easiest tip of all: get older
As we get older, particularly past middle age, we tend to naturally grow happier. There's still some debate over why this happens, but scientists have a few ideas: "Researchers, including the authors, have found that older people shown pictures of faces or situations tend to focus on and remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less."
A brand promise is the statement that you make to customers that identifies what they should expect for all interactions with your people, products, services and company.
I found a few brand promises that we can use as examples. Walmart promises “Save money. Live Better.” BMW promises “The Ultimate Driving Machine.”
Some may say these are advertising slogans, but I think they are more. They are promises that the companies want to deliver.
There is little doubt that shopping at Walmart will save you money on the large selection of merchandise they have to offer. The “Live Better” part of the promise is open to interpretation, but it would be hard to argue that saving a few dollars wouldn’t make life a little better. BMW promises something a little more abstract. Can they really deliver the ultimate driving machine? There’s plenty of other car manufactures that feel they provide the best in class. It’s subjective. And, subjectivity is what brings us to the point that no matter what you promise, you can’t control what customers think. It is their perception – their reality. You can only hope that what you want them to think syncs up with how they perceive you to be. You can’t argue with measurable promises, unless they don’t measure up. You can argue with abstract and subjective promises like providing the ultimate of anything.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what the company believes its perception to be. For example, we can tell everyone we’re friendly, but if the customer has a different opinion, what you believe doesn’t matter. It’s only the customer’s perception that counts. So, make a promise that intrigues the customer, makes them want to do business with you, and is a promise that you can keep.
No comments:
Post a Comment