Can you recall a leader or manager that you really respected and enjoyed working with? If you have some paper to hand, take a couple of minutes and quickly list on it the behavioural characteristics of that leader. What did you come up with?

It is likely that your list includes characteristics such as “passionate” and “energetic” or something similar to this. There is something compelling about an authentic leader who believes in his or her vision and engages with it, and you, in an energetic and committed way. We’re not just talking about leaders that are just charismatic or extravert. Great leaders are able to harness positive energy, transmit it and remain positive and tenacious in achieving their goals. They leave us with residual energy, and if we believe them to be authentic, we want to be with them and around them. We will go the extra mile because they ignite something in us.

IBM’s former chief exec Lou Gerstner is a great example. When he was at IBM, he described every public moment as a leadership event, and was conscious that the energy he portrayed, communicated and transmitted had a direct impact on his employee population. Gerstner often told the story of his own leadership journey and that moment of self awareness, when he realised that if he walked past the receptionist at IBM head office on a Monday morning with a miserable, worried or lack-lustre demeanor, then she was likely to attribute this to any number of causes. Is business is in trouble? Have I done something wrong? Maybe he doesn’t like me? In other words, Gerstner was acutely aware of the impact his own positive energy levels had on individual employees. Multiply that by leaders throughout an organisation, and the impact becomes significant.

Proven link between leader’s energy levels and the employee population
A current study emanating from the University of Michigan Business School (Welbourne et al, in press)* has found a clear link between leaders’ energy levels, and the impact/influence on the rest of an organisation’s employee population, thereby affecting productivity and the bottom line. Furthermore, early indications suggest that leadership energy levels can significantly impact absenteeism, turnover and customer satisfaction.

Welbourne’s study tracks organisational change, leadership energy and confidence from a sample of 4,500 senior executives worldwide in various industries every two months. Study participants answer short questions online, rate their current energy levels and when they are most productive. The hypothesis is that leadership energy levels can be directly tied to customer satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover, employee energy levels and therefore bottom-line results.

The issue here is one that Gerstner was aware of, namely that there is a real cascading effect—leadership energy impacts employee energy and employee energy affects front line performance. So how do maximise the likelihood that you will have energising leaders?

 Defining “energising”
One way is to ensure that you have first defined what comprises “energizing”, and once you have that list, that you systematically assess/select, develop, retain and reward it.  Of course energising capability alone is not a sufficient competency for an effective leader, but many of the organisations that ER Consultants work with are increasingly considering it to be a key competency. For example, the CEO of an international professional services client recognised that he needed both energetic entrepreneurial and opportunity seeking leaders in order to grow both revenue and margin. We worked closely with him and his executive team to define two competencies we now fondly referred to as “hustle” and “steel”.

Together we defined some of the key elements of “hustle” as:
Proactively identifies opportunities to stretch organisation performance;
Is restless in pursuit of business excellence;
Is opportunistic in seeking, pursuing and maximising business performance;
Tenacious in identifying and seizing new business opportunities;
Creates opportunities even when none appear to exist.

And we defined some of the key elements of “steel” as:
Tenacious in removing barriers that constrain business performance;
Anticipates potential problems and takes pre-emptive action;
Remains self-motivated even when things are not going well;
Confidently confronts issues which impact a number of people;

Uses internal and external measures to identify shortfalls in business performance and then acts on the information.

What is interesting is the extent to which the highlighted behavioural descriptors are “energising” descriptors.  If we list them together we come up with a business leader who is:

Proactive, stretching, restless, pursuing, opportunistic, tenacious, creative, pre-emptive, self motivated, confident and impactful.

Having defined these competencies and integrated them with other leadership competencies, our client has now developed a talent management programme to assess, recruit, and develop managers who evidence them. It is early days, but all indications suggest that having defined, developed and now selected in energising behaviours, this is having a positive impact on the business, and in particular the extent to which there is an increased focus on customer, sales and business development. This has already translated into greater business development activity and considerable revenue and margin growth.

Finding the energisers
So how do you assess whether a manager has these energising competencies and, can they be developed? The assessment question is the easier one to answer. Energy levels, positive focus, locus of control, positive self-concept are inextricably liked to personality, and so a combination of personality profiling, 360-degree feedback, behavioural observation, business simulation exercises, roles plays and historical data, should provide enough evidence to make confident prediction of whether a manager will become an energetic and energy giving leader. To illustrate I quote an anonymised extract from a recent assessment we undertook on behalf of a Venture Capital firm as part of their management due diligence process:

(NAMED INDIVIDUAL) demonstrates considerable capability across the competencies, and consistent with his personality profile, evidences that he is a business leader who will unequivocally deliver outcomes, and do that through effective persuading, influencing and managing others. He is a highly effective and an energetic organiser of systems processes and people.

The development question, however, is more controversial. Given the link with personality factors, it’s hard to see how you could develop energy in business leaders if the raw material isn’t already there by the time they reach their thirties. This is not to suggest that energy is innate. Like personality itself, whilst there are different schools of thought, most psychologists would agree that the energy factors are likely to exist as a consequence of a combination of genetics and environment i.e. learning. Most would also agree however that the formative years are from birth to seven years. In the absence of gargantuan life events either way, it’s hard to see how personality factors that contribute to positive energy could fundamentally change in adulthood.

However, ER Consultants is a diverse and creative consulting firm, and Paolo Moscuzza in his article on page 5 explores how managers can develop energy giving behaviours, based on some of his work with professional services firms. His premise rests on developing behaviours that result in leaving others with residual energy, and he offers some interesting examples. There is no doubt that this type of development is useful in improving the interpersonal repertoire of managers and professionals, and to develop their personal impact. 

So, if you are seeking energising business leaders who ignite, drive and excite your business, staff, stakeholders and customers, and who stretch your organisation to deliver outstanding performance, my advice is seek them out. Whether they’re within or without your organisation, find them, develop them, and above all, make sure you retain them.

For more information, contact: Martyn.Sakol@erconsultants.co.uk
© er consultants Topics Issue 1, 2008