The other energy crisis: not managing your own energy
Not managing your energy is a recipe for professional and personal failure. Managing your physical and mental reserves is not selfish, its necessary to drive meaningful and positive change.
“Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance” - Tony Schwartz
It was 7 AM, and I was slumped in my chair at the client's office, nursing my third coffee of the morning. The meeting hadn't even started yet, and I was already exhausted. Something wasn't right. As a consultant, long hours were nothing new, so why was I struggling? I was irritable, lethargic, and struggling to engage with even basic conversations. It took me a few weeks to realise what had changed – my morning workout routine had been disrupted by these crack-of-dawn meetings that were the preference of this particular client.
You see, I had always prided myself on maintaining a consistent exercise routine, hitting the gym first thing in the morning before work. When this client's early meeting schedule forced me to abandon this routine, I thought I could simply shift my workouts to the evening. What I didn't realise was that those morning sessions weren't just about exercise, they were creating the mental space and energy I needed to be effective throughout the day.
The failure
This is when I first realized that failure to manage my personal energy had a big impact on my effectiveness. Since then, I’ve seen it as a critical success factor for those driving meaningful and lasting change. Business transformation creates the perfect storm for energy depletion. The work is inherently demanding, with leaders constantly pushing against the status quo, managing resistance, and driving change in uncertain conditions. Unlike regular operations, transformation work requires sustained periods of high-intensity leadership, like running a marathon with several sprints thrown in along the way.
The real failure is perhaps not recognising that energy, not time, is the critical resource in transformation leadership. We obsess over time management, cramming our diaries with back-to-back meetings, while completely neglecting the management of our personal energy.
The result
There is relevance here to everyone, not just those driving transformation, as energy management is proven to make a big difference to corporate performance. Research by Tony Schwartz (HBR Oct 2007) featuring a study at Wachovia Bank, showed that employees who went through an energy management program outperformed their colleagues by 13 percentage points in year-over-year revenue generation – and that was after just three months of employing their learnings.
For transformation leaders I think the consequences are even more acute:
Burnout: taken to the extreme a lack of energy management overtime can lead to burnout. Not only does this have massive consequences for your health and life in general but it also means that you may not be around to see your change through or to witness fruits of your labor
Degraded Decision Making: mental fatigue leads to more risk-averse and short-term focused decisions. In transformation work, this often means choosing quick fixes over strategic solutions. I once read that President Obama wore only blue or grey suits to cut down on non-vital decisions. A great example of self awareness and recognition that personal energy is a finite resource
Compromised Communication: Energy-depleted leaders struggle to articulate vision and inspire change. Think about Tech leaders and their famous product launches – they require immense energy to deliver compelling narratives that move people to action. Not possible if you’ve been up for 24 hours previously on endless video calls.
Diminished Awareness: Low energy impairs our ability to read rooms, pick up on subtle feedback, and manage relationships effectively. When you're running on empty, you miss critical signals from your team and stakeholders.
Reduced Strategic Thinking: When energy is low, we tend to be reactive rather than maintaining the strategic perspective necessary for transformation success.
Some Remedies
Here are a few remedies I have found useful:
1. Create routines for your body - The corporate world often ignores the biological basics, but they're crucial. Tony Schwartz's work with corporate executives shows that simple rituals like regular breakfast and consistent sleep schedules can dramatically improve performance. Create non-negotiable routines that protect your physical energy – whether it's morning exercise, meditation, or proper meal times.
2. Treat your mind like a battery – it's about energy optimisation:
Map your energy patterns: Track when you're most alert and creative versus when you tend to flag and schedule high-stakes activities (strategic planning, crucial conversations, key decisions) during your peak energy hours
Use your natural energy dips for routine tasks or recovery periods
Break work into time-bound focused sessions followed by short breaks
Create energy boundaries: just as you wouldn't schedule a meeting at 3 AM, don't schedule energy-intensive tasks during your known low periods
3. Be intentional with your effort – don’t let your diary and your mind get cluttered with accumulated meetings, tasks and obligations that won’t make a difference. To do this you need to connect regularly with your purpose. I like to start each week with big things I want to achieve, aligned with my longer term goals. I use those three things to review my diary and remove the weeds, insert time to achieve these tasks and then reflect on them at the end of the week to either celebrate their achievement or understand why I didn’t get to them.
Time is finite, but energy can be renewed. Manage it wisely, and you'll not only avoid burnout – you'll maintain the clarity, creativity, and resilience needed to drive real transformation.
What energy management strategies have worked (or failed) for you in leading transformation? Share your experiences in the comments below.
Until next week, keep failing forward!
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