“How can I consistently be at my best and give my best when the definition of our ‘new normal’ seems to be constantly changing?”
As an executive coach, this is a question I keep hearing from my clients. We are used to demanding a lot of ourselves. That’s normal when the way you got to where you are took ambition, discipline, and dedication, and it’s critical when your role involves being responsible for others. Yet, the pandemic we’re living through has challenged so many of the practices that got us to where we are, and from Zoom fatigue to being “always on” and more, we’ve all felt drained more often than we’d like to admit.
In its 2021 Work Trend Index, almost 40% of respondents described themselves as outright exhausted. According to Britain’s Office for National Statistics, one in five adults experienced some kind of depression in early 2021, up from around 10% pre-pandemic. And on the other side of the Atlantic, surveys show that the percentage of Americans reporting an anxiety or depressive disorder has risen to 41.5% from 36.4% between August 2020 and February 2021. Over the course of our professional lives, we’ve learned how to manage the day-to-day of our jobs and to look after ourselves – if perhaps not always as much as we wished we did. But then the pandemic came along, disrupting the rhythms we learned to work within and, at the same time, offering an opportunity to stop and reflect. From going fully remote to hybrid to trying to “return to normal”, we’ve all done what we can to make the best of a situation that we cannot change.
In some areas, we may have gained a new level of agency; in others, we’ve found ourselves continuing to struggle to find a balance that allows us to flourish.
Maybe you’ve felt that despite the abundant stream of self-help tools, resilience tips and stress-reduction techniques that are available, you are still looking for how to integrate these various strategies in an effective and flexible routine.
When you look at how to strengthen your resilience and wellbeing, I’ve found that what helps the most is being able to clearly focus on:
Over my 24 years as an executive coach, I’ve helped driven, passionate professionals to achieve and sustain their goals by specifically improving how they manage their energy. The key, I’ve found, lies in charging your five “batteries”.
Your energy is like the battery in your phone: you want to keep it charged to use it when you need it. Your energy is like the battery in your phone: you want to keep it charged to use it when you need it.
In the Professional Energy Management framework, we like to break it down into five “batteries” that drive and sustain you in tangible and practical ways. They are:
Each dimension is recharged or drained by 10 specific “indicators”, such as your habits, your perceptions, your lifestyle, and so on. What’s important to remember is that each dimension is always influencing the others, which means that changing one has the power to both benefit us by reinforcing another, and that bigger issues in one area often boil over and affect others.
When you start to break down energy into the five batteries, you begin to have a clearer, more granular sense of what’s affecting you and what you could tweak. If you are struggling in certain areas, you can begin to ask, “How have my habits, perceptions or context changed? How are they currently helping or hindering me? What can I change? What do I need to accept for now?” Consider these anecdotes to help you reflect further:
When we feel stuck with our energy, we often start trying to figure out how we can get “more” or “better”. Yet, the question I invite you to ask is, “How can you optimize how you use your energy each day?”
It takes building new habits, and it starts with understanding where you are right now.
Whatever your situation may be, understanding how you are managing your energy is the first step to kick-starting new habits to help you consistently be at your best.- Francesca Giulia Mereu
Whatever your situation may be, understanding how you are managing your energy is the first step to kick-starting new habits to help you consistently be at your best. Through Personal Energy Management, we do this through “mini-habits”: small, beneficial practices that you can insert between existing habits – like brushing your teeth, making coffee, or opening your computer – to start the change that you want for yourself.
To do that, I created an “Energy Check” to help you establish where you stand and where you can go from here by showing how you take care of your energy through fifty key indicators.
Click here to take the Energy Check. After taking this anonymous, brief assessment, you will be able to download a self-debriefing report featuring questions, further information, and effective steps to get you on your way to creating new Mini-Habits aligned with where you want to feel change the most.
How can you consistently be at your best when work and the world around is constantly changing? Understand what energises you and use that knowledge as a resilient foundation to prosper past this pandemic and beyond.
The business landscape is littered with the carcasses of corporations that failed to adapt to shifting externalities. In today’s knowledge-based economy, never has innovation been more crucial to corporate survival. ...
Michael Skapinker, who once shared the quiet pessimism of Leonard Cohen, explains why a new era of positive change may be upon us. ...
While there’s no silver bullet, employers should put career progression and skills training at the center of their retention strategies, panelists said in a webinar on the global workforce of the future....
Companies that face supply chain disruptions can use a sliding scale purchase limit model to adjust prices while ensuring adequate supply during shortages....
Enterprising families need to take time to reflect on their greater purpose before setting up a family office and above all should avoid being rushed into decisions by financial institutions looking to...
Some companies are recognizing the benefits of creating new products and services for traditionally under-served audiences. But many more would benefit from doing the same. ...
Audio available
As hybrid working becomes the new norm, managers must find new ways to foster collaboration, digital competency, and employee well-being. ...
Most startups will fail, but a few will achieve extraordinary scale. While there’s no silver bullet, being humble, identifying key metrics, and partnering with anchor customers are some of the traits that...
You have 4 of 5 articles left to read.