by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy
At our company, The Energy Project, we have worked with thousands of executives and, with remarkable consistency, they tell us they're pushing themselves harder than ever to keep up. The problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. However, energy is a different story. Energy comes from four main wellsprings: the body, emotions, mind and spirit, and in each area, energy can be systematically expanded.
Most organizations invest in developing employees' knowledge and competence but few help build and sustain their energy. In fact, greater energy makes it possible to get more done in less time at a higher level of engagement.
The Body
It is scarcely news that inadequate nutrition, exercise, and rest diminish our basic energy levels. Nonetheless, many executives don't practice healthy behaviors, given all the other demands in their lives.
When Gary Faro, from Wachovia Bank, began our program, he was overweight, lacked an exercise routine and slept for five hours a night. That is not unusual among the leaders we see. Faro began cardiovascular training, started going to bed at a designated time and changed from two big meals a day to smaller meals every three hours. He lost weight, and his energy soared. “I used to schedule tough projects for the morning, when I knew that I would be more focused,” Faro says. “I don't have to do that anymore because I find that I'm just as focused now at 5 pm as I am at 8 am.”
Faro also began taking brief breaks, leaving his desk at specific intervals. The value of such breaks is grounded in our physiology. “Ultradian rhythms” are 90- to 120-minute cycles during which we move from a high-energy state into a physiological trough. Toward the end of each cycle, our systems crave recovery. The signals include restlessness and difficulty concentrating, but we often ignore them and keep working. Consequently, our energy reservoir burns down as the day wears on. While having breaks every hour or so goes against the culture of most organizations, their value is multifaceted.
The Emotions
Most people realize that they perform best when they feel positive. What surprises them is that they're not able to perform well when they're feeling any other way. Confronted with relentless demands, people slip into negative emotions that multiply time as a day. This drains energy, causes friction between workers and makes it impossible to think clearly.
Deep abdominal breathing is one way of diffusing negative emotions. When we began working with Fuji Nishida, from Sony, he would light a cigarette when something stressful occurred at least twice a day. Otherwise, he didn't smoke.
The breathing exercise taught him worked straight away: he no longer desired cigarettes. It wasn't the smoking that had relieved his stress but the relaxation from deep inhalation and exhalation.
Another ritual that fuels positive emotions is expressing appreciation, an action that seems to be as beneficial to the giver as the receiver and the fuller and more precise it is, the higher the impact. Allocating time for this vastly increases the chances of success. Ben Jenkins, of Wachovia, has built his appreciation ritual into regular dinners with team members. He recognizes their accomplishments and talks with them about themselves and their aspirations, rather than their immediate work responsibilities.
The Mind
Many executives view multitasking as necessary but it actually undermines productivity. A temporary shift in attention – stopping to answer e-mails for instance – increases the time necessary to finish the primary task by as much as 25 per cent, a phenomenon known as “switch time”. Dan Cluna, at Wachovia, now leaves his desk to go into a conference room whenever a task requires concentration and finishes reports in a third of the time they used to require.
Perhaps the most effective focus ritual executives can adopt is identifying each night the most important challenge for the next day and giving it priority the following morning. Jean Luc Desseyn, of Sony, used to answer e-mails as soon as he got to work. He now dedicates the first hour every day to the most important task and often emerges at 10 am feeling he's already had a productive day.
The Spirit
Most people live at such a furious pace that they rarely ask themselves what they stand for; external demands dictate their actions. We don't suggest that people explicitly define their values, because the results are usually too predictable. Instead, we ask questions, such as, “What are the qualities you find most off-putting when you see them in others?” By describing what they can't stand, people unintentionally divulge what they stand for.
A New Focus
This new way of working depends on organizations adopting new behaviors. Organizational support entails shifts in policies and practices. However, one factor that hinders success is crisis mentality. Optimal candidates for our programs are feeling enough pain to be eager for new solutions but not so much that they're completely overwhelmed.
At one organization where we had the active support of the CEO, the senior team couldn't tear their focus away from immediate survival – although taking time out might have allowed them to be more sustainably productive.
An explicit contract that benefits all parties will require organizations to shift their emphasis from getting more from people to investing more in them, so they bring more energy to work every day. For their part, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and take responsibility for changing them.