Vedere Consulting

This is the third post in a series on maximizing performance through managing energy based on the work of Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in their book, The Power of Full Engagement.

You’ve got an important deadline. You try to work on it but you keep getting interrupted. You’re finding it hard to concentrate. The pressure is starting to build. You’re getting anxious. You may not be aware of it, but your breathing is getting shallower, your muscles are starting to contract. Your system is getting flooded with adrenaline and cortisol. Blood is being diverted from your brain and you no longer can think clearly. You are under too much stress.

Ladies and gentlemen, your negative emotions have taken over and your performance will suffer. Emotions are the key to the quality of our energy just as our physical state is key to the quantity of our energy. If we are to manage energy to maximize performance, we must learn to manage our emotions—to turn from negative emotions like fear, depression, anger and impatience to positive emotions like joy, excitement and challenge.

According to Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, optimum performance requires high amounts of positive energy. This is not about being naïve or unrealistic, it is about recognizing we have more control over our emotions than we realize. It means looking at any reality—even a harsh one—honestly, and then choosing your reaction to it. A successful sales manager I know didn’t get a job promotion he wanted. He was given a training assignment instead. He found an aspect of the new job that played to his passions and strengths and turned it into an award winning program. He looked for the hidden opportunity in the hand he’d been dealt, found it and then exploited it. That's realistic optimism.

Schwartz and Loehr point out that we can run down our emotional energy just like we can exhaust ourselves physically if we constantly spend emotional energy without recovery. Negative emotions are more costly to our energy levels than positive ones just as a gas guzzling car uses more gas than a hybrid.

We build our capacity to respond optimistically and confidently to challenges when we seek out and maintain sources of emotional renewal. Spending time with people who are important to us, building friendships that are truly give and take, and engaging in activities that are enjoyable, affirming and/or fulfilling are important sources of emotional renewal. Because they are more that a pleasant activity, we must treat the time we devote to them as sacrosanct if we are to perform at our best.

Another way to build our emotional capacity is to develop ways to build optimism. Tony Schwartz, in an article in the Harvard Business Review, suggests developing rituals such as taking time to express gratitude for what you have, taking time to express appreciation to others, and reframing. Reframing means examining your interpretation of an event and determining if another interpretation is plausible and more “hopeful and personally empowering.” For example, if I contact a client and they don’t call me back I can easily interpret their silence to mean they are uninterested in my services. I get discouraged and maybe write them off. On the other hand, it is just as plausible and more empowering to interpret their silence as they are busy and/or out of town. If I wait, they will probably call me back, or I may choose to follow up in a week or two. In either case, I’m going to be more confident when I talk with them and if I’m more confident, I’m more likely to respond in a way that will win business now or in the future.

As always, the key to building emotional capacity is to make small incremental changes. For example, one client of Loehr and Schwartz’s decided to call his parents at least one time a week during his commute home. Another client made it a habit to take a bike ride with his son every Saturday. Another took a report to lunch once a week and told them something about them she appreciated. Still another asked himself when faced with a tough situation “how will I see this in 6 months?” Another started taking a dance class once a week.

Take a look at your emotional energy. Do you need to build it?

For more ideas on small changes you can make to increase your emotional energy:
contact me for a free brainstorming session: plum@vedereconsulting.com or 804-261-6483.
or
read The Power of Full Engagement, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+power+of+full+engagement+

For a free or an inexpensive Full Engagement Profile, see: http://www.lgeperformance.com/assessment_diagnostic.html

For more information about the authors of The Power of Full Engagement and their work, go to these websites:

Jim Loehr is the Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of the Human Performance Institute, http://www.lgeperformance.com/index.html .

Tony Schwartz is Founder and President of The Energy Project, http://www.theenergyproject.com/home.html .

Labels: Work and Life Balance

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