Good at your Job & Running on Empty

Two people on my team once received the same assignment, same deadline & same resources. They had the same level of skill, which I know because I’ve worked with them for more than two years and I could have told you either one was capable of delivering the assignment.

One of them delivered early and had three ideas about what we should do next and asked to lead the follow-up. The other team member, turned it in four days late, apologized twice, and did not want to talk about it for a week after.

For a long time I filed that under motivation. Some people want it more. Some people are just wired to push through. That was the story I told myself, and to be honest, it was a comfortable story for me. If the difference was motivation, then the difference is them, and not me.

I no longer believe that story. I watched the same person be both of those employees. Not over years, but over months. Same skills, same manager, same company, radically different output.

Something else was going on.

What was actually different

Here is what I understand now, and it took my professional coach training with iPEC and becoming an Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner for me to understand it and be able to describe it.

The difference was energy. Not the kind you get from a goodnight’s sleep or early morning cup of coffee. The kind you bring into a room and into a task, which shapes what you are able to see and experience once you are there.

There are seven levels of energy that all of us move through. For this article’s purpose, I’m only focusing on the first two.  The first two are catabolic, meaning “draining”.  It’s combative, gives us a limited view and takes an emotion, mental and physical toll on us. The other five are anabolic, which means they build. They are constructive, growth oriented, effective and provides a strong level of satisfaction.

Level one is the “self-pity” level and sounds like: I have no choice here. This is happening to me. Nothing I do will change it.

Level two comes with blame and anger and sounds like: This is their fault. If my manager would just. If this team would just. If the deadline had been reasonable in the first place.

Level two feels better than level one, and that is exactly why so many of us live there. Frustration has energy in it. It feels like movement, like you are doing something. You are not. Both of these levels keep the problem outside of you, in a place out of your control. Both levels provides limited views, short-term results and ultimately unhappiness.

The remaining five that builds, sound like accountability, curiosity, compassion, and the ability to look at a genuinely difficult situation and see options where a minute ago there was none.

Neither of the two people on my team lacked ability. One of them met the assignment from a level that opened things up. The other met it from a level that closed things down.

When you are operating from level one or two, your thinking diminishes. You generate fewer ideas, and you take the first workable solution rather than the best one.

The output of catabolic energy

Drained energy adds a tax you are not counting. Think about your last difficult week. How many hours went into doing the work, and how many went into managing how you felt about the work? Replaying the comment your manager made. Rehearsing what you should have said. Being annoyed on the drive home. Explaining the situation to your partner for the third time. Sounds familiar? We’ve all been there.

Nobody puts that second number on a performance review. And in most cases, managers are not inquiring about how energy is impacting output.

Drained energy makes you avoid the thing that would fix it. The conversation you are dreading is usually the conversation that unlocks your thinking. Catabolic energy is very good at generating reasons to put things off.

Drained energy is contagious.  If you lead people, this part matters more than the rest. The energy you bring into a status meeting sets the range of what your team believes is possible in that meeting. They will not tell you that. You will just notice the room gets quiet.

iPEC's research on this has found that people operating at higher, more anabolic levels report greater satisfaction across their work, their relationships, their communication, and their leadership. That tracks with everything I saw in 25 years of management, well before I had a framework for it.

The energy chain

Your energy drives your thinking. Your thinking drives your behavior. Your behavior drives your results.  Most of us try to start at the end. We buy into the productivity system. We block the calendar. We work harder. We stay up later. And those things work for a while, right up until the next stressful moment arrives and we watch the whole structure come apart, and then we conclude we are the problem.

You are not the problem. You are working on the last link in a four-link chain. Experiencing levels one and two energy is normal, but it doesn’t have to be our foundation.

What to do about it

Good news is that none of this requires a complete life overhaul.  And honestly, who has time for that?

First, pay attention to your default energy. Everyone has a level they return to under pressure. Most people have never once looked at what theirs is. For the next week, when something at work lands badly, just notice the first sentence in your head. Is it "I have no choice"? Is it "this is their fault"? I’m not judging and this is not the time to judge yourself. You are simply collecting data.

Next, ask yourself a question. When you find yourself with catabolic “draining” energy, ask yourself what part of this is mine? Yep, I know it’s uncomfortable to take accountability sometimes, but this will allow you to stop fueling the energy that is no longer beneficial to you.

Finally, pick something on your plate right now that feels heavy. Ask yourself what you would do with it if you were certain it would work out. Then notice how many things come to mind that were sitting right in front of you the entire time.

Most energy loss happens between things. That four minutes after a hard meeting and when you carry it into the next one. Or simply, the moment after an unpleasant exchange with a coworker and then you discussing it with another coworker at lunch.

Final thought

You do not need a better system. You already know what to do. What is worth examining is the energy you are bringing to what you’re doing.  Energy is upstream of everything else, and it is the one thing you carry into every room you walk into and every conversation you have with a team member. Every interaction we have provides us with an opportunity to lead and have a positive impact on those around us and ourselves.  It’s also worth noting, your energy level is not your personality. It moves. That is the entire premise of the work I do.

If you want to better understand your energy, book a 30-minute session with me and I’ll teach you how the Energy Leadership Index shows how you show up on a normal day and under stress. Most people find the second half genuinely surprising.

T. Lynn is the founder of Impact Energy Coaching. After 25 years leading cross-functional teams in Corporate America, she now coaches young professionals, emerging leaders, and students on how they show up and what it is costing them. She is an Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, trained in the iPEC Core Energy Coaching process, and a member of the International Coaching Federation.