...WHILST RETAINING AND ATTRACTING TALENT
In order to create the best possible context for yourself as a leader you need to maximise your energy level. In order to create the best possible context for your people and your product, you need to get the purpose of your organisation clear. And here’s the good news: the two are linked. Just like an electrical car is recharging whilst driving, you can recharge your professional batteries whilst spending your energy… on your purpose.
Paul is a service broker. Through an aggressive acquisition strategy he is growing fast and he is now among the top independent players in the Belgian market. When we recently met he told me that he struggled with his priority setting. He feels really stressed, has so much on his agenda that he loses connection with the two core components of his organisation: his people (both his employees and his customers) and his product. He would love to delegate some of his tasks, but he doesn’t find the right talent.
This is an often recurring theme in my conversations with business leaders. They never have time, and their agendas are killing them. On top of that, the ongoing war for talent makes it incredibly hard to find the people they need, and they are concerned that too big a proportion of their existing employees is suffering from the growing work-stress.
If not tackled right this risks to become a negative spiral. If approached in a thoughtful way though you can reverse this spiral.
“One of the best professional lessons I learnt is to manage my energy leaks.”
In order to create the best possible context for yourself as a leader you need to maximize your energy level. In order to create the best possible context for your people and your product, you need to get the purpose of your organisation clear. And here’s the good news: the two are linked. Just like an electrical car is recharging whilst driving, you can recharge your professional batteries whilst spending your energy on your purpose.
But what if you don’t have enough energy…? One of the best professional lessons I learnt is to manage my energy leaks.
This is how it works. You list all topics you spent your time and energy on, physical energy and mental energy, and with these topics you create 3 clusters: cluster A holds all topics you spend energy on, but you know that you don’t have any impact; in cluster B you put all topics you spend energy on, and yes, you do have an impact, but the problem would have been solved without you as well; and finally in cluster C you will find all topics you spend energy on and because of you things have really changed. Now look at these clusters with two different sets of eyes.
First you ask yourself where you get most energy from (I guess it will be cluster C). Then ask yourself what frustrates you most (probably cluster A, right?).
Now you put yourself in the shoes of other stakeholders of the concerned topics, by preference your boss. Where does he or she admires you for? Cluster C, no? And where do you think you irritate him or her? Yep, cluster A.
This means that you are spending an important part of your time and energy on things which are frustrating you whilst you are irritating the people around you. Sounds kind of counter-productive, no? So maybe you should stop doing that… Unless you do it consciously of course, because it harms your values or your authentic being. But then it is a deliberate choice.
By doing this exercise you have freed already a big part of your time and energy, time and energy you can spend on other stuff. Starting with maximising your energy level for example.
Prioritising your sleep, eating healthy and balanced meals, putting physical activity on the agenda, and making time for human interaction are all main sources of energy. We all know this, but we ignore it too often when stressed. However, they can make a world of difference to how we feel and therefore how we behave. If you want support in getting this right, I can highly recommend you Dominique Monami (https://www.dominiquemonami.com/); if you want a deep dive into nutrition, you should definitely work with Véronique Liesse (https://www.veronique-liesse-nutrition.com/).
With these two actions, managing your energy leaks, and maximising your energy, we are all set to break the downward spiral. And the key action to make it an upward spiral is to focus your energy on your company’s purpose.
If you create clarity on your company’s vision, mission and values, and you spend time on a compelling story to bring that to life in your organisation in a consistent and authentic way, you will give meaning to the work of all your employees. Your current and your future employees, because purpose is essential in the war for talent. If the work people are doing really matters to them, they feel more positive energy, focus better, and demonstrate greater perseverance. And so will you. Just like an electrical car that recharges its batteries whilst driving, you will recharge your and your company’s batteries whilst spending energy on your purpose.
“Creating clarity on the purpose of your organisation will help you spend more time and energy on your people (current and future employees, and current and future customers) and your product, whatever the context.”
So my advice to Paul to tackle his problem was a 6-step approach:
1. Manage your energy leaks
2. Maximise your energy
3. Invest time and energy in clarifying your purpose. What is your vision, your mission, what are your values, how do you translate these into your strategy, and last but not least how do you share these in a compelling way with the whole company
4. Analyse the impact of step 3 on your people, and, if necessary, review your talents and your teams and adapt your organisational structure to maximise the potential of your company and your people
5. Analyse the impact of step 3 on your product, and see how you can better align your go-to-market with your customer needs, and how you can better meet the expectations of your potential future acquisition targets
6. Reiterate steps 3 to 5 to further refine your purpose and your plans (“sequential recycling”).
Step 1 and 2 is an exercise Paul has to do himself; for step 3 to 6 he can count on my support. His purpose will help him spend more time and energy on his people (his -current and future- employees, and his -current and future- customers) and his product, whatever his context or agenda...
If you would feel like Paul, just drop me a line, and we can figure out how ACT11 can be a valuable sparring partner to help you clarify the purpose of your organisation and translate that in an effective strategy for leveraging the qualities of your people (your employees and your customers) and your product.
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