5 Questions to Positive Energy
Organizational energy is leadership’s responsibility. Negative energy is the result of neglect or ignorance.
Successful leaders energize others.
Focus on energy:
In as little as five minutes, you can energize a team member. But, leaders who persistently focus on problems create negative environments.
Remarkable results require and produce positive energy.
What are you doing to generate positive energy? If you don’t know what you’re doing to generate positive energy, odds are your organization endures negative energy.
Generate energy:
Generate positive energy by asking team members five simple questions.
5 questions to energy:
- What are you doing that’s working? (Listen for behaviors.)
- What’s important to you about that? (Listen for motivation.)
- How could you do more ________? (Name one of the behaviors from question one.)
- How can I help?
- Could we talk about this next week?. Set a follow up date. (Optional follow up if it seems appropriate.)
Got five minutes:
The “five question” conversation could happen over coffee or while walking down the hall, in as little as five minutes.
Every leader wants energized teams. But, when asked, leaders often don’t have examples of energy generating activities.
Successful leaders monitor, manage, and generate positive energy.
Can you think of a leader who generates positive energy? What do they do?
How does one find balance between confronting problems but yet motivating others to bring their beat self?
Ignoring problems is clearly going to create problems, but how do you drive towards a positive environment despite problems?
Thanks Mark. You ask an important question. If your positive environment is the result of pretending everything is ok, when it isn’t, you won’t last long.
Leaders always deal with problems. The issue is the way it’s done.
1. Spend more time on where you’re going than on where you’ve been.
2. Ask, “How can we make this better?” This is a forward facing way to face a problem.
3. Ask, “What will you do differently next time,” when dealing with poor performance, for example.
Cheers
Thanks Dan – very helpful.
Your posts are very insightful and help inspire me to be a better leader every day.
I like number 1. – this can be very hard stuff – I agree in the team motivation – I often end up in turnaround situations where things are really broken – people are demotivated .. looking forward by honing in on strengths and passions (where there is purpose) is a way to better days …
A quick observation on Mark’s important questions, and related to this notion of energizing. It’s a question of where we, as leaders, focus our attention. If we focus on the things that don’t work – the mistakes, the complaints – as our first comeback, that can be de-energizing and overtime depletes moral and productivity. In every situation, no matter how dire, there’s always something that works. When you seek to discover that, and that becomes the yardstick, you can get a far more generative, development, empowering conversation started, which leads to ideas for solutions, improved relationships and people happily speaking up rather than shutting down. That, in my experience, leads to a positive environment, despite the problems. People get energized when they talk about things they can do and want to do. …. love the post.
Yet another great post Dan!
Thanks phreebie!
Yes… the director of my previous employer. He inspired me and did that through asking, probing and showing interest. Furthermore I believe he was enthusiastic and he radiated that enthusiasm towards others. A real role model for me he has been.
Thanks Dennis. It’s great to hear a story of a leader who fueled your energy. He obviously made decisions to show interest in others. It’s simple, yet powerful.
Excellent post. Many times as leaders we don’t realize, or we forget that our behaviors can have a huge impact on our teams. We impact attitudes and behaviors simply by the words we say and the way in which we say them. One goal of a leader should be to create positive momentum for our teams. This is what John Maxwell refers to as the Law of Momentum.
You are the guru! Well said.
I see Dan’s post as about “creating” staff energy, energy in the organizational culture, and as a natural byproduct, leadership energy. I believe Dan is reminding us that the word “generate” has a lot to do with “get going,” start moving, begin, CREATE…do something! And the word creativity comes from create.
Above, Mark asks 2 very poignant questions about the reality of the leadership conundrum insofar as being positive and motivating in the effort to bring staff members UP to optimum energy levels for peak performance—while facing and confronting an array of problems.
This is certainly a reality and can definitely take its toll on any leader’s energy.
Of course, Dan answers with wisdom and experience.
Leaders are professionals: Persons who do their best at a time when they don’t feel like it.
Please don’t ask me the scripture reference, but somewhere in the bible I read something like this: Each morning God tells us to wake up believing something good is going to happen to us, for this is the day our Lord has made…for us. It feels good to believe! So, we must not only rise, but rise and shine!
Lastly, we don’t have to be artists to be creative: Solving for “X” in the problems we face can take creativity. As high school students perhaps all of us asked: “Why do I have to study Algebra? When will we ever use it in our daily lives?”
Well, we solve for “X” when buying a home, a laptop, looking for a job, going out for an interview, writing a business plan, hiring a new staff member, and I’d even say when seeking a spouse. And, believe it or not, solving for “X” makes problem-solving FUN and energy generating!