Steve Jobs’ secret to energy renewal.
One of the keys to great leadership is energy management. Energy management of self. And energy management of the group. It always starts with ourselves, first. There are a lot of exhausted people out there, not taking care of themselves, not eating the right foods, not exercising, not drinking nearly enough water, eating too much sugar, staying indoors for way too long each day, and then wonder why they feel like crap! They didn’t prioritize and execute on their own health first. This is always #1 because health is always #1. Without good health, you’re not much value to anyone. Besides, no one wants to feel sick all the time. No. We want great health and great relationships. All leaders want these things and so they take the steps to act accordingly. It all starts with the self.
Everything starts with managing your own energy well. Get good sleep. Eat well by following a disciplined diet plan. Take some time for yourself each day even if it is only one hour. Protect it! Get outside and walk. Most all of us are Vitamin D deficient. Go get some by walking outside for at least 30 minutes each day. You’ll automatically feel better by doing this simple thing. Take some meetings outside, too, if you can. Take your calls outside. Just keep moving, keep walking. Movement is not only a key to our physical health, but to our mental health as well. We must keep moving.
Invest in your mind by reading each day, too. Start with just 15 minutes, then build it up from there. Start something new, like a hobby you’ve never done before. Skill up and practice new skills that will help you in your hobby or career like video or writing or storytelling. Record yourself and track your progress. Find a way to incorporate what you’re learning and practicing into your work. There’s gotta be a way to do it. If not, find a gap and fill it. It’ll be a stretch for you and your comfort zone. Most of us are way too comfortable in our box at work. Step outside of it and work on something new and creative, something you’ve never done before. Look for a hole to fill and fill it! Bosses and leaders take initiative. If you want to be seen as one, you should do it, too. Don’t ask for permission — just go and build it. See what they say about it later. If reading books is outside of your comfort zone, good! Start there. Find something that slightly scares you to do, then go and do it. That’s the stretch you need.
Great leadership is also management of others’ energy. Have you ever been in a day Long meeting and seen the energy of the room flatline? Like around hour 6? Time to break! People are not meant to be sitting around in a room around a table for 10 hours straight without regular breaks to move, to breathe, to get outside.Renewal breaks must be included and part of the agenda. They are far better if they’re every 90 minutes or so of time block followed by 15 minute breaks to move around. People must move! It’s good for your physical energy as well as your mental energy. We must move!
Steve Jobs believed in the necessity of movement by taking long walks outdoors with colleagues. Whenever he had an important one-to-one discussion, he’d head outside with them to move forward and walk with them. This not only helped both of their thinking, but it helped make it seem like they were on the same team, moving forward toward a common goal. Long walks give you the physical and mental momentum that is far harder to get to by sitting inside in a conference room in another interminable meeting. With the long walk, once you’re back to the building the discussion is over and you feel better because you were moving the entire time. Here, walk with me. Let’s take this outside.
Do not feel bad about taking your breaks during the day! Get away from the screens regularly to renew you. Yes, block your time for productivity. But build in time for breaks and renewal. You must have break time and renewal time to maintain your sanity. If you take a look at most executives’ calendars, you’ll see meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting back-to-back-to-back. No surprise! Every day, it is more meetings! The only way the executive can really take back their day is by cutting out some meetings. Most executives are loathe to do this because they want to feel helpful and useful by attending every meeting they think they need to. Only there are meetings where they simply do not need to be there. They can simply get a summary emailed to them. Even if they were to cut out two meetings a day, that would be a great start to gaining their day back. We have to get better at setting boundaries for our time and for ourselves! If we don’t, people will simply walk all over us and our time, stealing it away from us. This is why our priorities are always being revisited. Things shuffle around. Initiatives shift and change. Our priorities need to be set forth probably each week to keep us on the right track. Great time management is aligned with priorities. The company’s. The boss’s. You own. Do not forget about your own!
Ideally, a few times a week, we should sit down and think about what is most important to us now. How does what we’re working on this week affect our productivity, our legacy, what we desire to build? How does what you want to build align with the company’s goals? How does where you want to go align with the boss’s view of where she wants you to go? How clear are you on your week’s priorities as musts to get done? What’s non-negotiable this week? What must you nail this week? What legacy work will you hammer on this week? What will build your reputation as an industry expert this week? Who will you help this week?
A common complaint at the office is the constant shifting of priorities along with lack of resources to get it all done. We’re always struggling with managing it all and the shifting of it all. It is either this or this, not this and this. One of the theses needs to be backburnered. You should seek clarity at least each week in order to properly prioritize and make sure you’re on the right path. And if you have more than three or four top priorities, you may have none, especially if there are 12 of them. You’ll need regular check-ins with the boss to make sure what you’re doing aligns with what they think. If it diverges, get back on the same page. Things shift. Internal communication is always a challenge even with all these meetings going on supposedly to help augment it. To help mitigate poor communication, try over-communication for awhile and calibrate it to your boss’s desires. No one can say you’re a poor communicator if you’re constantly doing it. Just try not to annoy people too much! Be curious. Be helpful. Be quick.
Remember: Move. It cannot be stressed enough. Do not forget to move throughout the day. The easiest thing in the world is to stay stationary, yet it is harmful to our physical, mental and emotional health! Get moving regularly. Build in your breaks. Manage your own energy well. Lead yourself well first. Then, you can lead others with great energy and as a great example for them. Both you and the team will feel so much better throughout the day with regular movement.
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