Energize Your Leadership

Energize Your Leadership began as a collaboration among a group of leaders who met online with a dream to write a book about ways to ignite individual leadership. We came together around stories and experiences that had one theme in common: leaders were feeling sapped of energy. Somewhere along the way, these leaders had lost a sense of excitement—that feeling of being alive that powers everything you do. Some of us saw it in the workshops we were facilitating, others heard it from coaching clients; many of us noticed it in leadership at the organizations we worked at. No stranger to the phenomenon ourselves, we found that each of us had also experienced a moment or period of lack of excitement and energy. Wherever it was, we heard time and again how leaders were feeling overwhelmed, disengaged, and were searching for meaning. We saw that leadership was in need of a potent dose of energy. The focus of the book is to understand how energy is a key driver for our individual leadership success. Since energy is the force that propels and moves things forward, when we become energized, we feel empowered to lead with passion and resilience. Our approach to exploring leadership is to journey from the inside out, so leaders first grasp who they are and what they stand for before connecting to and influencing others. It begins with an authentic look at oneself and moves outwards to touch the lives of those we encounter in our personal and professional worlds.

Energize Your Leadership springs from a collaboration of 16 leaders from around the world who came together online. They recognized a lack of energy, excitement and sense of purpose in the leaders they interact with each day. As they explored ways to help these disengaged, overwhelmed and discouraged leaders discover a new spark an extraordinary community of friends developed. Here they share stories from their individual journeys to demonstrate how energy ignites leadership success. Join us to energize your leadership Energize Yourself Regardless of whichever philosophical or spiritual path you choose to follow, all of them have one factor in common – the root of all energy begins within, since the seed of all energy is found within ourselves. In this first part, we examine that seed by taking a look at four crucial energy centers found within ourselves and how best to tap them: Values, Gifts, Self-Questioning, Creativity. Energize Others Energizing others begins with the self. When you deeply know your values and gifts, the next step is bringing that true self outward – with authenticity and honesty. A foundation of authenticity brings life, vigor and genuine connection to personal and professional relationships. From there, you can meet the needs of others and motivate them to be active participants in the co-creative process. In this section, we look at four practices key to people-energizing: True to Oneself, Being Seen for What (and Who) You Are, Deal with Problem People, Serve to Lead - Lead to Serve. Energize Your Workplace An organization, like any collective of people, is not just the sum of its individuals but an entity unto itself. Together, these collected people form a singular organism with its own behavior and culture. We hope for one whose energy crackles with positivity and growth. Although all the insights in this book can be applied at the organization level, in this part we look at four factors that are especially crucial to an organization’s collective energy reserves: Brand "You", Gut Thinking, Gratitude-Based Organizational Attitude, Love Multiples. Energize Your Future The future is often presented as some uncertain void of chaos and unpredictability, and while this is true to a large extent, such a representation also ignores the fact that we are each armed with those tools that can give us the best chance at success in the future. But how best to energize a future that holds so much unknown? Here are four concepts to do just that: Have a Plan B, Recognize the Role of Fun, Explore the Unknown, Face Whatever Comes with Positivity.