If you haven’t yet joined our fortnightly Reset Show, may I boldly suggest you’re missing out. This week’s show and its focus on energy was a corker. If you want to find out more about the Reset Show, scroll to the bottom. Or watch the recording here. On the other hand, read on to find out what we covered…
Perry Timms, founder and Chief Energy Officer of PTHR, joined us to talk about his new book The Energized Workplace. (If you want a good and energising summer read to set you up for the reset, get yourself a copy.)
On the show Perry talked about why it’s time employers started to take their duty of care towards their people seriously and stop depleting them without giving anything back. His book goes into this and explores ways to do it. On the show he talked EQ, managers, coaching and mentoring for energy; redesigning organisations around what gives people energy; quantum energy, chakras… and Soviet athletes. Yep, I’d love to give you the low-down on that last one, but you’re going to have to read Perry’s book for this. I told you it’s a different read, perfect for the reset.
Perry also touched on how to activate energy in your team. The answer? Talk about it. We don’t mean talk and no action, but as Perry and Emma concurred, if you want to create more energy in your team, rather than depleting it, you need to find out what it is that sets your team on fire and do more of that. You get there by talking and trying things out. It might start off feeling a bit weird, but Perry promises if you can carve out a safe space for the team to try creating and aligning around energy, they’ll soon be delivering the sorts of results that encourage others to copy.
Still on the subject of leadership and energy, Emma talked about the work of Professor Kim Cameron, from the University of Michigan. The study shared in his book Positive Leadership, suggests five items form a reliable and valid measure of positive energy. Emma suggests using this scale to assess positive leadership energy in your own organisation:
- I feel invigorated when I interact with this person.
- After interacting with this person I feel more energy to do my work.
- I feel increased vitality when I interact with this person.
- I would go to this person when I need to be “pepped up”.
- After an exchange with this person I feel more stamina to do my work.
The findings from this study revealed that when individuals are exposed to a positively energising leader in their workplace, they have significantly higher personal well-being, higher satisfaction with their jobs, higher engagement in their organisation, higher job performance, and higher levels of family well-being than those without.
Justin, our resident resilience coach, on the other hand, talked about what we can all do as individuals to look after our own energy. Offering a model of energy that encompasses four elements – emotional, physical, spiritual and mental – Justin suggested using this to analyse where we put our energy, and what returns we get back in the form of more energy. Use it and you’ll become your own energy broker, he says. Let us know if you try it.
It was a great show. Thank you Perry for joining us on your Wellness Wednesday – a one-day punctuation in PTHR’s week where the team does ‘what feels good for soul’. It felt pretty good to my soul to have you there.
Lastly, a request and an offer. The energy was most definitely flowing on the show this week. We left with a big question – what can we do individually and collectively to design systems that optimise energy? If you’d like to join the conversation as we embrace the big reset, join us next time and invite your positive energy team members too.
PS – A bit on the Reset Show
Now we are moving into the ‘adapt’ and ‘renew’ phase of this pandemic fallout, we wanted to help you figure out what happens now, and make sense of the huge volume of information and advice that’s out there. The disruption and chaos are going to be around for a while. But what is clear is that there is a unique moment in time for us to work together to seize the opportunity the big reset presents. The Reset Show explores the things we want from the reset and the things we need to make it happen. Sign up to the next one here.
