Think of that person you really like working with—a colleague, manager, or even someone from another department. What is the invisible magnetism that draws you to this person?
The attraction you feel comes directly from the energy the person emits. But what exactly is this mysterious and invisible energy?
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Infectious energy
Like the sun, each one of us emits energy, though not of the nuclear or radioactive sort.
This energy has two forms, according to Ari Weinzweig, co-owner and founding partner of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which also provides customer service training, seminars, and consulting, and author of the Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading series.
In any environment, people will be carrying around stores of ‘good energy’ or ‘unproductive energy’. You know unproductive energy when you see it; it’s typically characterised by lots of noise, chaos, and misdirected efforts at raising productivity.
Good energy, however, invigorates and inspires those who feel it. Having good energy is a fun and productive state to be in, and eventually contributes to a general positive vibe that jumps from person to person like a friendly virus.
“In the context of the workplace… you know the energy is good when you go to a meeting and people are having fun and are engaged, even if dealing with difficult issues,” explains Ari.
Manage, monitor, and mentor energy levels
Unlike our relationship with the sun, we can control these types of energy, whether our own or that of the people around us.
Ari compares it to tasting the flavours of food. Like food, ‘tasting’ the energy of others allows you to first identify the type and amount of energy you carry, before sharing it with the rest of the team to raise the overall ‘energy awareness’ in the organisation.
“It’s not rocket science: when the energy is better, sales go up, stress goes down, tensions decrease, fun increases: everything just works better,” he explains.
Build your energy
Whether you are an introvert or extrovert, you can master your energy. The key lies in knowing what helps you build your store of good energy.
For introverts, you may need to spend time alone, fulfilling yourself with activities like journaling, reading, or cooking, while extroverts may prefer to connect with others and draw energy from conversation and shared experiences.
However, it is just as important to keep track of the things in your life that will lower your energy. If you can, schedule these unpleasant and possibly mundane tasks at a time when your energy is high, or just before something refreshing so that you don’t end up getting too low, for too long.
Then, Ari warns, we need to be wary of who we spend time with. You know who they are—the folks who drain your resources with unproductive energy, sometimes even without you knowing it.
“There are some well-meaning folks who aren’t satisfied just having bad energy; they want to make everyone else’s energy negative too. It’s the people who complain endlessly, the ones who seem to find the problematic part of every situation, the people who persist in seeing what’s wrong no matter how much I try to focus on what’s going well first,” says Ari.
Now that you have a grip on your energy—how to raise it, sustain it, and replenish it—the final thing is to take a moment before you enter a new situation with new people, to make sure you are bringing the right energy in to that place.
Ari says: “The energy I bring will influence that of others—the better mine is, the better theirs is likely to be.”
Yusuf Hamid is the Editor at Digital Boomerang, which basically means he stares at (and occasionally, improves) content for a living. He’s well versed in the dark arts of influencing opinions and attitudes through text and images, after several years of experience in several newsrooms in and around the region, both as a journalist and photographer.
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