What Emotional Energy is Fueling Your Leadership?

“Your foremost job as a leader is to take care of your own emotional energy and then help orchestrate the energy of those around you.” Peter Drucker

A colleague forwarded that quote to me recently. Though Peter Drucker’s leadership thinking is legendary, I was especially impressed with this quote. Popularized in 1995 with Daniel Goleman’s 'Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than EQ', emotional intelligence was not a leadership topic discussed for the majority of Drucker’s life.

I did my due diligence and checked the quote. According to Goodreads*, Peter Drucker said:

“Your foremost job as a leader is to take care of your own energy and then help orchestrate the energy of those around you.”

A little disappointingly for me, Drucker made no reference to emotional energy.

Yes, energy management is essential. Emotional energy management is even more critical.

Why?

Emotions Drive People. People Drive Performance.

Think about great work that you have accomplished. How did you feel when you were doing it? Typically, we feel motivated, inspired, focused and engaged when delivering strong performance. We might be inspired by a long term vision, or a short-term win. Regardless, the drive to succeed and perform is emotional energy in action. If you can understand the motivations of those around you, you can inspire them to achieve their potential.

Emotions are Contagious.

Think of people who you delight in being around - and those you would prefer to avoid. The behaviour and communication they exhibit and the energy they give off, is contagious. If it’s upbeat and positive, great. If it’s downbeat and negative, beware. Whilst to some extent, it’s your decision who you associate with, it’s definitely your choice whether you assume their emotional energy. That’s easy to say and understand, but it can be difficult to practice. It takes conscious effort to be resilient in the face of prevailing winds of gloom and negativity.

Emotions Contain Data.

Emotions are well-intentioned. They want to help you. Your job is to analyze the data they contain and choose how to use that insight. When asked, many leaders cite anger as the emotion they are least able to handle effectively. Yet the intent of the anger is to help you.

Perhaps you are feeling angry because one of your core values has been attacked. In that moment, how do you choose to channel that emotion? You hold the cards of your response in your hand. At one extreme you could vent fury. Another option is to transfer that energy into righting the wrong you perceive.

Emotions are Manageable.

Emotions arise to help you. Yet if you don't engage your rational brain to determine how best to proceed, you may react to your emotional triggers.

It can be helpful to think of emotions on spectrums. If you are feeling slightly apprehensive (fear), you might decide to move that emotion along the spectrum to anticipation, perhaps even excitement. You might find thoughts to believe and steps to take:

‘’I feel isolated when colleagues don’t hear me out. I’m going to use my empathy to build relationships and strengthen my sense of inclusion.’’

‘’I feel embarrassed when I see workers heading to one canteen and managers heading to another.  I’m going to draw on my courage and sense of security to change this situation.’’

‘’My colleague dumped their share of the work on me….. (pause as you decide how to respond)…. I can channel my frustration into a feeling of empowerment and help them change this behaviour.’’

What emotional energy do you generate, how do you channel it and how does it impact you and those around you?

Effective Emotional Energy Drives Successful Outcomes

As a leader – of yourself and possibly others, do you instinctively know the drivers behind a positive spirit and team climate? It's important to appreciate those drivers as they correlate strongly with success**.

Research from Six Seconds indicates that key drivers of a positive outlook are:

Trust

We all know the feeling of trusting others and being trusted. You commit to commitments. Exhibit competence. Act consistently. Engender confidence. Connect to others with empathy. Communicate constructively, with transparency – and diplomatic directness.

Trust in ourselves and others can free us from the mindsets that constrain us.

Motivation

Intrinsic motivation, the inner fuel that we use to propel ourselves forward, is crucial to embracing uncertainty with tiny (or huge)  brave steps, overcoming hurdles and re-railing after a derailment. Why does what you do matter to you? Keep reminding yourself.

Appetite for the Unknown

We don’t know what lies ahead, but we do know that it won’t be the status quo.

How do we translate fear of the unknown, of failure, of judgment to excitement to move ahead into unknown territory? Is it possible to accept that we don’t know the outcome, yet control the elements of change within our power?

Which emotions do we need to harness to take those tiny or huge steps into the unknown?

What needs to be in place for us to move ahead with some degree of comfort? Confidence that we have done adequate homework and planning? Possibly a few back up plans? Knowledge that we have a support team to turn to? Confidence that we have the wherewithal to bounce back from a few missteps?

Teamwork

Effective teams accomplish more than a collection of lone stars. But what makes a person feel part of a team and the team function more effectively than its individual parts? Genuinely high expectations? Self-confidence? Clear objectives? Transparent communications? Empowerment? Ongoing feedback? Sense of trust? Feeling of safety? Do a scan of your team and identify the strengths and gaps - and then decide how to leverage the former to address the latter.

Execution

We all need to achieve results to feel a sense of satisfaction. What drives us to achieve results varies depending on our values, our environment and the people around us. Research from Six Seconds shows that a combination of optimism, purpose and intrinsic motivation (including resilience) power our ability to move ahead and achieve successful outcomes.

When seeking to achieve stronger levels of performance, take a closer look at the state of these drivers in you and your team. They provide insight into how to raise the quality of outcomes - and enhance their level of sustainability.

Underlying this is awareness of emotions and analysis of emotional data. How we channel our emotional fuel correlates strongly with the outcomes in our lives.

Andrea Stone is a leadership coach and consultant who supports leaders and leadership teams to achieve positive change in themselves, their teams and their organizations. She enjoys working with technology leaders with pan-regional and global remits to support their growth and development.

If you want to measure the pulse of your leadership, team or organization, message Andrea directly.

*I haven’t been able to find the quote in any of the 12 Drucker books I own, only on Goodreads

 **Six Seconds defines success in terms of our effectiveness (what we get done), our relationships (personal and professional), our well-being (mental, physical and emotional) and the satisfaction we feel in our achievements.