Manage Your Energy, Not Just Your Time!

Imagine an athlete who routinely shows up for games tired, hungry, or thirsty, and then proceeds to play the entire game without any time-outs. What kind of performance would you expect over time? How well would that athlete perform under pressure? What might be the impact of his dysfunctional behavior on his career and team?

Just because an athlete arrives at games on time doesn’t mean he or she is prepared to play. Similarly, just because a leader manages time well doesn’t mean he or she has the energy to deal with the challenges of the day.

If you fail to manage your energy throughout the day, you are running the race without the energy reserves needed to hurdle your daily obstacles and achieve your difficult goals. Over time, your productivity, morale, and employee retention will drop.^[i]

Leaders cannot “unleash the energy of others toward worthy goals” (the essence leadership) if they do not manage their own energy. So, I encourage you to replenish your mind and body throughout the day by brainstorming the answer to this question (perhaps with your team members):

What simple, daily actions might help me fill my gas tank throughout the day?

Listed below are nine other practical tips to help you manage your energy every day.

I. Mind your mind.

The editors of Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) have spent years analyzing leaders in all walks of life. They report that the number-one trait responsible for turning dreams into reality is how leaders think. Be positive, think success, and avoid negative environments is how IBD describes minding the mind.^[ii]

In his study of 500 industrial leaders such as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone, Napoleon Hill discovered that a positive mental attitude was critical to success.^[iii] Executives who execute with passion and courage seldom focus on what they do not want. Like athletes, they maintain their energy by placing their attention on their intention. They engage in a number of daily, mindful behaviors that keep them focused on what they do want.

Here are nine tactics that will help you keep your mind focused and renewed. Pick a few that will work for you.

• Review your values and big-picture goals daily. Your values and goals set your ship’s rudder for the day. Keeping the big picture in mind takes the sting out of those little pinpricks we all experience every day.
• Make positive connections. The people who surround you influence how you think. Spend time with those who tell you the truth and lift you up. They are the ones who leave you thinking, I like me when I’m around them. Select your friends and social media connections carefully. Limit the time you spend with people who are negative or optimistically challenged (i.e., “negaholics”).
• Keep learning. Successful leaders are lifelong learners. They take courses, read books, subscribe to their customers’ magazines, join professional associations, and ask lots of questions. Your customers, products, and environment are constantly changing. Spend an hour a day soaking up new information to stay current and positive. Father Anthony deMello, a Jesuit priest, writes, “The one thing you need most of all is the readiness to learn something new.”^[iv] Stay motivated by being open to most things, attached to few.
• Tell stories. At one executive retreat, the CEO kicked off the meeting by reading a two-minute motivational story. I encourage you to occasionally start your meetings (and perhaps dinner at home) by reading a humorous or uplifting story.
• Listen to uplifting audio programs in your car. The average commute in the United States is approximately 20 minutes each way, which translates to 10,000 minutes (167 hours) of commute time every year. Are you spending or investing your commute time? Investments go up in value over time. Don’t let those grains of time slip through your hourglass. Review the high-quality audio programs available at sites such as http://www.thegreatcourses.com/ . Invest in yourself during a portion of your commute time.
• Meditate daily. At a recent coaching session, I told an executive named Mitch that his team and colleagues were unhappy with his inconsistent emotional intelligence. He needed to even out his highs and lows. Those around him, I said, were always trying to find the best time to approach him. “Is he in a good mood or bad mood?” was the silent question that echoed in halls surrounding his office. My feedback was not well received — but not for the reason you might think. On that day, I had back-to-back-to-back meetings and didn’t take time to meditate or catch my breath before meeting Mitch. Because I was not grounded when I delivered the difficult news to him, I presented the message in a way he couldn’t hear it. This is a major sin for an executive coach. I am convinced I could have avoided this poor feedback incident had I engaged in my normal practice of meditating at least 20 minutes a day, which I’ve done for the last 35 years.

My life has been filled with terrible misfortune,
most of which never happened.

Michel de Montaigne

II. Nourish your body: If your mind is willing, but your body is weak, you’ll find yourself falling short of your destination. Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi was right when he declared that fatigue makes cowards of us all. Here are several ideas to keep your motor running throughout the day:

• Exercise regularly. A little daily exercise will do wonders for your attitude and weight. You don’t have to become an Olympian. Top performers stay fit by doing something aerobic regularly, even if it’s a quick power walk. One mile burns about 125 calories, whether you walk it in 20 minutes or run it in ten. There are 3,500 calories in one pound. Thus, if you walk one mile a day (at lunch) for 28 days, you lose one pound. A mile a day melts the pounds away and keeps you refreshed throughout the day.
• Sleep well. What happens to you if you only get five hours of sleep? Patti Milligan, director of nutrition at Tignum, summarized a sleep study that measured the effects of five hours of sleep per night for seven days on blood-glucose metabolism in healthy men.^[v] Results showed that during the one-week study, metabolic changes occurred consistent with increased insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is associated with increased risk of diabetes, cognitive decline, joint deterioration, and other degenerative diseases. Milligan also pointed out that there’s evidence that among those who suffer from impaired glucose metabolism, lifespan is reduced by eight to ten years. What happens if you only deprive yourself of sleep once in a while? Milligan cites studies demonstrating that healthy individuals deprived of a single night’s sleep have a 30% drop in their immune system activity, while the emotional centers of the brain become 60% more reactive in those who extend their sleep deprivation to 36 hours.
• Eat right. A few weeks ago, my cycling buddy Jim and I were sweating our way up the Santa Monica Mountains in Malibu. As we reached the top of the 6.7-mile (8% grade) mountain road, Jim asked if I wanted to bike down the opposite side of the mountain and come up another canyon road. He wanted to do what we called a double. I said sure. We had done hundreds of doubles together. Unfortunately, on the second half of the climb on that second mountain, I bonked — an abrupt drop in energy. The stress of the second mountain depleted me of fuel needed to do the work, and I was unable to perform well. As I struggled up the mountain, I realized why this climb was so different from the many others Jim and I had undertaken. This was a very rare spontaneous double — I had not planned to bike for three hours in the mountains. Therefore, I didn’t eat or drink properly in preparation. When I finally reached Jim, who was waiting for me at the top, I asked him if he had prepared for a double. “I always prepare for a double, Dave.” We laughed all the way down the mountain about my lesson — we perform only as well as we eat.

The demands of today’s work environment require that you prepare for a double every day. I encourage you to avoid the leader’s bonk by “minding your mind” and “nourishing your body.” Adapt the ideas discussed here and let me know what works for you.

Do you have other approaches that help you manage your energy? What keeps you going up your steep roads?

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