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10
Leadership Principles for Managing Energy, Not
Engagement
By Brady Wilson
After 20 years of trying to get it right, few organizations truly understand employee engagement or have failed to
see its improvement in their company. And yet, other organizations have in- creased engagement, but find their em- ployees are drained and depleted.
So what causes this engagement para- dox? It’s simple. Managing engagement turns out to be just another drain on the most precious resource in business to- day: energy.
It’s not that employees don’t want to be engaged. They’re committed and loyal workers; however, in today’s over-extend- ed era, they’re simply struggling to make it to the weekend. Lacking energy, they resort to quick fixes, workarounds, and reactive firefighting, thereby hardwiring depletion into the system.
Simply put, employees need a pep in their step.
Here are 10 ways for leaders to look at engagement differently, shift their thinking toward a culture that puts en- ergy first—and reap the rewards.
No. 1 – Manage energy, not en- gagement
Brain science shows that when we are low on energy, the first thing we lose is our executive function – our ability to focus, to regulate emotions, prioritize, plan, make decisions and take action.
By managing employees’ energy instead of engagement levels, leaders safeguard people’s executive function, and unlock the energy that fuels passion, innova- tion and enthusiasm, generating sus- tainable engagement.
No. 2 – Deliver experiences, not promises
Often, leaders gravitate toward elabo- rate recognition/reward programs and intricate performance management sys- tems that hold – but don’t deliver on – the promise of fixing issues once and for all. This creates cynicism, corroding the entire employee experience, and employees be- gin to see employee engagement as noth- ing more than a con game.
By delivering experiences, not just promises to employees, you have the chance to create a happy, productive, frequently energized employee base. No. 3 – Target emotion, not logic
Research shows the limbic system – the brain’s emotional center – defines what we experience as reality. So, if your employees don’t feel they’re valued, all the assertions, declarations and assur- ances in the world can’t make it true for them. To inject employees with energy in their day-to-day jobs, leaders must ap- peal to the emotional brain. Taking time to understand what matters most to your employees – and then acting upon that information – is an incredibly effective
way to show compassion and support. And the benefits are huge: according to the Corporate Leadership Council, tap- ping into emotional engagement enables employees to offer you 400 percent more discretionary effort!
No. 4 – Trust conversations, not surveys
Businesses that rely on annual engage- ment surveys are not getting the entire picture, nor do they generate intel need- ed to energize employees to do their very best.
Leaders who shift from surveys to frequent, face-to-face, meaningful con- versations with employees can gener- ate energy and enthusiasm throughout an entire organization. This is because quality leader/employee conversations release all kinds of hormones in our brains, hormones that promote trust, fo- cus, and creativity, deepen relationships and unlock results.
No. 5 – Seek tension, not harmony
The brain’s natural response to ten- sion is to interpret it as a threat. Lead- ers often respond to tension by slipping into unhealthy behaviors like overpow- ering others, giving in to the tension, or avoiding it altogether. But believe it or not, our brains are actually energized by tension. This is because the tension be- tween the current way of doing things and the desired way of doing things can
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