4 Ways Resilient Leaders Manage Their Energy Levels
All successful, resilient executive leaders know that performance stems from energy. And you can spend your energy doing whatever you want.
Energy is one of the five key dimensions of our Resilience Model (see below). To maintain performance during difficult circumstances, like today’s health crisis, and peak at the right times, you need to be able to manage and marshal your energy resources.
We’ve been teaching executive leaders and teams how to increase and manage your energy levels for more than a decade and below are our 4 favourite ways to optimise your personal health, wellbeing and resilience.
1. Sleep
Sleep is nature’s best performance enhancer. Not only is it important for rest, repair, recovery and growth, it improves our memory and our decision making ability.
95% of humans need on average 7-9 hours of sleep per night, however, there are anomalies. One of our clients is an ex-Wall Street executive who has lived on 4.5 hours of sleep a night since 1983!
But most of us do need 7-9 hours of sleep a night because the glial cells in the brain need time to clean up our synapses and remove the toxins that build up during the day.
It is perhaps better to think of us needing 50 – 65 hours of sleep a week because the odd bad night is not going to affect us too badly.
Best sleep tip: Prioritise sleep and develop a pre-sleep routine to help maximise the quality of your sleep e.g. turn off your tech an hour before you go to bed – don’t worry the world won’t end!
Sleep by Nick Littlehales is a good book on the subject.
2. Exercise
We all know that exercise is important for our health, fitness and energy resources – even the Government recognises that in its recent COVID-19 lockdown sanctions.
Ideally, you want to be doing a combination of strength (more important the older we get), cardio, flexibility and high-intensity interval training each week.
If you’re in the exercise groove, fantastic! However, if you’re not sure you’re doing enough or the right kind of exercise, ask yourself:
Why aren’t I doing enough?
What am I prioritising instead of exercise?
What do I need to do to commit to the right exercise regime for me?
There are some great (and free) resources to start exercising, especially now.
3. Nutrition
Food fuels and supports your body and brain, which is why it’s important to nourish your body and mind with the right nutrients, especially during stressful times.
The key thing about nutrition and resilience is ensuring that blood sugar levels remain constant throughout the day. This is because when blood sugar levels drop, we are less able to focus, make poorer decisions/choices and are more likely to be emotionally hijacked/triggered (see our blog on managing your emotions for resilience).
The trick here is to not leave large gaps between meals. For example, skipping breakfast or leaving a large gap between lunch and an evening meal. We often encourage people to have an extra small meal between 4 and 5pm.
It’s also best to eat foods with a high glycemic index (foods that make you feel fuller for longer, like complex carbs and proteins).
Eating a balanced and nutritious diet takes planning, and a key habit of successful, resilient leaders is being disciplined with their planning.
Our CEO, Bill Lawry, follows the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time he’s quite disciplined and 20% of the time he eats what he likes, like Tunnoch’s tea cakes!
The best book we’ve come across in relation to nutrition is The Pioppi Diet by Malhotra and O'Neill. Ascend isn’t a proponent of diets, but this book is based on practical research (observing people in a village in Italy who live unusually long and vibrant lives) and then backing it up with scientific research.
4. Identify things that drain and boost you
A great way for increasing your energy resource is identifying the tasks, cultures and people that drain/boost you and do or see less/more of them.
This might mean you start delegating certain tasks that suit other people’s strengths better than yours, and/or identifying the energy drainers in your work and social networks and spending less time with them.
One of the biggest drains on energy is a lack of alignment with your purpose and core values and the organisation or climate you are working in. As we discussed in our blog Be More Resilient During Tough Times By Knowing Your Purpose, you are more likely to be resilient and bounce forward from setbacks if you are aligned in these areas.
And by knowing the things and people that boost your energy, organise your routine so you spend more time with the energy givers.
Like when installing any new habit, making the necessary changes to increase and maintain your energy levels, takes patience, discipline, planning and of course, consistent implementation. You may or may not see or feel the powerful benefits instantly, but you will reap rewards with regards to personal health, wellbeing and enhanced resilience.
Want to build your resilience during this time and come out stronger? Get in touch with us!