From firefighting to future-building: mastering your leadership energy
We all have finite energy. While we cannot change the amount of energy, we can manage how we optimise the available energy we have. We can also influence where and how we invest it. Work expectations often force us to spend energy on tasks and activities that are necessary but not always the best use of our capacity.
As humans, our energy is generated and managed by our brain. Our brain responds to stimuli and allocates energy to operate and deal with our external environment. Resilience is both a factor of effectively managing challenges and having energy available to optimise our performance.
For the sake of this thought process, I categorise energy into two types: Responding Energy and Shaping Energy.
Lex Sisney, a business consultant and author of Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing Your Business, describes the different forces inherent to organisations as being responding and shaping forces. Applying this concept to our use of energy becomes useful in assessing our investment.
Responding and Shaping energy
Responding energy refers to activities we engage in to react to our environment. We act on stimuli such as receiving an email, answering a phone call, responding to a request or an instruction. We also react to problems, mistakes, changes in plans, market shifts, performance issues, and constraints. Our responding activities typically include attending meetings, solving problems, managing crises, and handling emails.
Responding is important and required—it is not inherently negative or less valuable than shaping. However, an overemphasis on responding leaves little capacity for shaping the future.
Shaping energy refers to activities that influence our environment and contribution. It includes future-oriented and strategic actions aimed at improvement and optimisation. Shaping energy is invested in innovation, leading change, and influencing the market through new products and services. Activities in this category include visioning, planning, experimenting, research, and learning.
The energy challenge for leaders
An important insight into the energy we have available is that our brain prioritises what it perceives as negative or threatening. Our brain first allocates energy to problems, stressors, and pressing issues. Only once it determines that these have been sufficiently addressed can we focus attention and energy on thinking strategically and creatively.
This presents a challenge for many business leaders. The demands of daily operations often consume our energy in responding-type activities, leaving limited capacity for shaping thoughts and actions. Many CEOs, MDs, and executives wear multiple hats and have responsibilities beyond their core role—the area where their greatest value lies. To become a more effective leader, it is essential to understand where your energy is invested and to find ways to unlock a balance between responding and shaping energy.
Think about the decisions you typically make: Are they mostly responding-type decisions, or are they shaping? Again, responding is not inherently negative. The key is balance.
The role of emotions in energy allocation
We associate different emotions with responding energy and shaping energy. Responding energy is often linked to feelings of concern, uncertainty, stress, and overwhelm. Conversely, shaping energy is associated with emotions of calm, optimism, control, determination, and clarity. While these emotional states are not always clear-cut, they significantly influence the amount of energy we have available to perform at our best.
Consider the last week of work. What did you spend your time on? More importantly, where did you invest your energy? We are always both responding and shaping, but without clear priorities, we tend to slip into more responding. This happens when we fail to guard our strategic focus, take on unnecessary tasks, neglect delegation, or operate with limited resources.
Your role as a leader requires you to contribute in a shaping manner. It is also what adds to your sense of purpose and meaning in work.
Actionable reflection
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- What is one aspect of your current role that you should delegate to free up shaping capacity?
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- What could a shaping activity look like in your personal capacity? An activity that is energising, that stimulates your creativity and optimism.
Leadership is not just about responding effectively—it is about shaping the future. Optimise your energy wisely.
If these topics resonate with you,
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