Managing energy can lead to striking results across organizations!

The core problem with working long hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals— behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.

Embed rituals like…

• Going to bed earlier and giving up drinking, because it can disrupt sleep. As a consequence, you feel more rested. Maybe you are also more motivated to exercise?! Sit down with your family for breakfast.
• Renew yourself regularly during a workday: leave your desk for lunch and take a morning and an afternoon walk outside. At the end of the day you feel more relaxed and you are better able to connect with your loved ones.

Personal effects of managing energy

Establishing simple rituals like the one mentioned before can lead to striking results across organizations. At Wachovia Bank, a group of employees was participated in a pilot energy management program. Their performance was measured against a control group. The participants outperformed the control group on a series of financial metrics, such as the value of loans they generated. They also reported substantial improvements in their customer relationships, their engagement with work, and their personal satisfaction.

Benefits go straight to your bottom line

Take Wachovia Bank: the year-over-year increase in revenues of participants in the energy renewal was 13 percentage points greater than the control group. They also exceeded the control group’s gains in revenues from deposits by 20% (source ‘Manage your energy not your time’). Help your employees systematically rejuvenate personal energy, and the benefits go straight to your bottom line.

Something to gain for scale-up companies

So, what’s to gain for scale ups? Scale-ups demand ever-higher performance from their workforces. Company members try to meet these standards and, put in longer hours to ‘get the job done.’ They feel exhausted, disengaged, and sometimes they even get ill and finally they quit and turn to healthier job environments.

Most scale-ups invest in developing employees’ skills, knowledge, GTD and other competences. Just a few help their employees to improve their energy management skills, which is typically taken for granted. But in fact, greater capacity makes it possible to get more done in less time at a higher level of engagement and with more sustainability.

Start today

So start today with managing energy instead of time. It will become easier to understand once you start to get that longer days at the office don’t work because time is a limited resource. But personal energy is renewable!

Getting curious about this new way of working? And do you need help with implementing energy management instead of time management in your company? Just drop me a line and let’s talk about how to get things done for your employees (and eventually your company as a whole)!

• Read more see PDF Harvard Business Review October 2007 ‘Manage your energy and not your time’.
• Dare to check your vitality level? Check 4 Free here