Individuals who leave us feeling energised and positive possess ‘residual energy’, which they transfer onto us. Paolo Moscuzza reveals the individual and business benefits of residual energy and how he works with people to release it.
CUT TO: Savoy Hotel, London, Conference room. Into frame moves an awkward David, a tall smartly dressed professional, standing alone uncomfortably holding a glass of juice, jealously glaring at the other executives networking furiously.
DAVID’S INNER VOICE
Ok, here we go. There must be about 200 people at this event and I hope I quickly find someone I know. Oh dear an extra big smile in my direction. Do I know him? What is he selling? We smile politely, no conversation – I can’t think of anything to say. The others must all know each other, why else would they have so much to speak about. I hate this, I don’t want to be here, I knew it would be a waste of time. I wonder where the exit is. No I can’t. I’ve just got here. That woman is looking nervously at me, perhaps she is wondering what she is doing here as well. Here we go:
DAVID
Hello
He fidgets nervously wondering whether she heard him.
SARAH
Hi there I’m Sarah, pleased to meet you.
She looks directly at a nervous David, who’s obviously struggling to read her name badge as well as lost for words.
DAVID
Name’s David.
Hopping from one leg to another, sheepishly grinning at her, he’s still struggling to think of a conversation that might prick her interest.
SARAH
So are you a regular at these events?
DAVID
No
He’s still struggling to form more than one word answers.
SARAH
Where are you based David?
DAVID
London
He’s scrutinising her still trying to second guess what she does. The ten second pause is becoming unbearable.
SARAH
I am based in Chelmsford, but London is very easy for me.
She starts to swill the wine in her wine glass, regretting she had started conversation with him. David notices she’s getting as uncomfortable as he, so decides to ask a question.
DAVID
“So uum what do you do?”
SARAH
I am from a global engineering organisation and I am part of the finance function. What about you David?
DAVID
I’m an accountant.
He inwardly sighs with relief, thankful they’ve got something in common.
SARAH
Are you from one of the big four?
DAVID
No
He still struggles to come up with anything to hold her interest. Another long pause. Sarah watches the other executives natter away as she gulps down the rest of her wine.
SARAH
Well, it was good to meet you.
David just stands there smiling and nodding his head.
DAVID’S INNER VOICE
There goes someone I nearly chatted to. Now where’s the exit?
FADE OUT: David frantically looking for the exit sign.
We can all think of people who leave us feeling good and energised after meeting with them. Likewise we all know someone like David in the above scenario who can leave us feeling flat and drained of energy. Although the conversation content plays a part in affecting how people feel, an individual’s style has a key impact.
Take David, who really struggled at business events. Despite being a very success partner from a professional services firm who had worked on lots of interesting projects, the words simply did not flow at formal events with strangers. Yet, he had very good relationships with clients he had worked with for many years. At events he quite simply destroyed any energy, momentum or conversation flow. He also did the same when he was under a lot of pressure.
It’s an issue that many clients can relate to, but one that few would admit to. So how can people like David change from being someone who practically sucks the energy out of others, to someone who leaves people feeling better and energised even after a short encounter with them? The answer is by increasing personal levels of residual energy.
The science behind the theory
Residual energy is about feeling energised after spending time with someone. It is essential for executives to generate day-to-day action and the momentum to enable real change to occur. Often during change an organisation will put the machinery together (the processes and structure) and then forget to put in the fuel (the energy) to make the new engine move – and in worst case scenarios they take away all the fuel and then wonder why things grind to a halt. However, residual energy is often the vital fuel that can play a critical role in a range of situations from the first point of contact with a stranger through to improving a difficult discussion.
Positive thinking lays the foundations for creating residual energy. It involves taking the thinking and doing the right thing with it.
Positive psychology is currently very much in fashion, but it’s not always the best strategy for increasing residual energy levels. Positive thinking is a good strategy when the cost of failure is low, but not when the cost of failure is high as the examples here below illustrate.
- Low cost of failure = positive thinking strategy
For example, if you are a sales person and you have had 35 rejections today and are about to make another cold sales call. The cost of failure is low because the worst thing that can happen is that the other person puts the phone down on you. Being positive is probably a good strategy, because if you are not positive you may well talk yourself out of making call number 36. It is very easy to talk yourself out of it using negative thinking.
- High cost of failure = negative thinking strategy
For example, if you are carrying out safety checks on an aircraft and you suspect that there may be a problem. Are you going to be positive and think, ‘It will be okay, lets take to the sky?’ In that situation you want some negative thinking, because you want everything to be rigorously checked with a focus on what can go wrong. The cost of failure here is extremely high.
People tend to veer to more positive or more negative thinking and find examples to justify their preference rather than considering how to get the best outcome from a situation.
The actual art of increasing residual energy
Returning to residual energy, positive thinking lays the foundations for creating it. Imagine that you are preparing for a board meeting on a sensitive subject – this may require a heavy negative thinking stage for the preparation, where you have to think about all the difficult questions they may ask you. This should ideally be followed by a focus on solutions to those healthy and productive negative thoughts. However, when you walk into that meeting a positive approach is essential to releasing residual energy. You have done the negative bit during your preparation and have moved on to focus on what you can do to solve the situation.
The type of energy you release depends on three things – the words you use, the way you speak and your body language. The three combine to either generate residual energy or drain one of energy. At ER Consultants, through one-to-one coaching we help executives like David to develop increased levels of residual energy.
The first step in helping David was to carry out a 360-degree feedback. His direct reports wrote about how they respected his technical excellence, his reliability and helpfulness. However, there were a number of negative points about David avoiding marketing, finding first meetings awkward and not making much effort with people outside completing projects. One direct report commented on how David can find everything wrong with something and leave you feeling completely flat without realising it.
Although sceptical about spending time with a business psychologist, David acknowledged the results of the feedback that he was losing commercial opportunities and killing creativity. With some reluctance he agreed to one-to-one coaching. I coached David over a period of three months, profiled him and watched him in action. We focused on two key areas of development:
- How to better attract new business
David was excellent at delivering to existing clients but in reality messed up introductions to new clients and colleagues were avoiding introducing him to their clients. The firm was losing commercial opportunities.
David would destroy creativity by destroying the ideas and sapping the energy out of the person with the idea.
We identified four key things that were holding him back. The first three relate to meeting people and the fourth related to destroying creativity.
- Preparation – David’s preparation was to focus on all the things that could go wrong. He had no concept of preparation for a human interaction.
- Mental dialogue – he was having very negative conversations in his head and that was affecting his manner e.g. looking away rather than engaging
- Conversation dynamics – he simply did not know how to make a conversation flow (even when the other person was giving him lots of opportunities).
- When thinking about ideas or innovation he would purely focus on the detail and look for errors. He never packaged this with anything positive nor did he consider his voice and facial expressions.
David’s progress
Through a series of one-to-one coaching sessions over three months colleagues are noticing a difference and so are clients. The number of introductions to new clients from colleagues has increased and he is converting a greater percent of business leads into sales. David recognises that words like charismatic and energetic will never be used to describe him, however, he is happy to have reduced his negative impact on people and is profiting from the increased results.
Focusing on the energy of individuals like David through coaching can achieve great organisational outcomes. If you are finding it challenging to energise your team and colleagues (see the box-out below on the common warning signs), simple, yet effective interventions like one-to-one coaching can make a considerable difference.
The Energisers?
Are you guilty of sapping the energy of your colleagues and team? Here are five common warning signs to watch out for:
- You wake up thinking of excuses to not speak with people.
- You feel a sense of envy as you notice people, who are normally nervous and reserved in your company, relaxed and interactive in the company of others.
- You put difficult conversations off, hoping nobody will notice there is a problem.
- Your direct reports hardly speak at meetings that you are chairing.
- You notice people are happier to see you leave the room, than when you entered the room.
If you can relate to one or more of the above scenarios, you should consider one-to-one coaching.
For more information, contact: paolo.moscuzza@erconsultants.co.uk
© er consultants Topics Issue 1, 2008
