Are you generating enough energy to reignite your drive?
There are some questions that we’ve been asked often enough to know the answer without thinking. What the answer should be at any rate. Not necessarily what it is.
The kind of question you get in an interview is a good example: “What drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning?”
Most people I coach have the answer already formed before I finish the question and it’s generally about purpose and making a difference and people and outcomes. It’s very worthy and I’ve no doubt it’s also absolutely true, but it’s all very distant and perhaps a little detached from the everyday realities of calls and meetings and board reports and sorting out other people’s squabbles.
A more useful question might be: “What brings you to life, puts a glint in your eye and a spring in your step? What makes you feel like you can conquer the world?”
What could genuinely reignite your drive?
Over the last year I’ve noticed a subtle but sustained drop in the energy levels of many of the people I’ve spoken with, especially those in the top jobs. It’s well hidden of course – even the most authentic people subconsciously turn their best side towards the camera. But it’s there.
The reasons are invariably individual but there are commonalities. For a few it’s the sense of having been in the same place for a long time. Leadership change tends to come in waves across the sector and to be fair we’re probably due one.
But for many it is about chronic fatigue, whether the aftermath of covid, personal situations, or those of relatives and friends. And often, a big slice of it is related to the state of the country and the world, the state of public social discourse, the state of the sector’s finances and the uphill struggles that seem to be getting steeper. It’s easy for even the most resolute to get down.
In any leadership role there’s a vast array of things constantly vying to drain your energy, and finding ways to manage and refill that energy has never been more important.
Yes, this might mean taking some time out to deliberately spend on yourself. Assuaging guilt, forcing a gap in the diary, maybe even saying no to something. But I promise you, it will be one of the most effective investments of time you’ve ever made.
Ten minutes of quiet reflection will help you remember most of the times you’ve felt absolutely energised in the past, and many of those sources will still be there, waiting for you to tap into again. But there will be many more you’ve not tried before, and a little experimentation can help you find a whole new set. Because energy can come from the most surprising places.
When I was endeavouring to lose a lot of weight a year or two back, I knew I was going to be in for a long haul, but after a while I found the best source of energy to continually reignite my drive was to embrace vanity.
Anyone who has observed my appearance over the years would be understandably surprised. Actually, probably quite shocked. But what can I say? It turned out that the simple idea of swanning around in a slim-fit designer shirt gave me enough energy to shed an entire sack of spuds.
At one point that same emergent sense of vanity drove me to buy a brand new, super-duper beard trimmer. When I tore it out of the packaging it looked amazing. When I tried it out it was terrible, dragging and snagging and chewing its way through my whiskers.
My wife, overhearing my muttered curses, asked in her usual sensitive way, whether I’d read the instructions. I replied in my usual terse manner that I didn’t have time because I had a call in five minutes.
As I emerged from said call an hour later, she handed me back the trimmer and suggested I try it now. It was a thousand times better, and more contritely, I asked how she’d fixed it.
“I plugged it in.” She replied. “It’s amazing how much better things work if you give them time to charge up.”
I think there’s an urgent lesson for us all right there.