At a recent convention in Montreal, I started my speech by asking participants
to stand up and move around the room, greeting as many people as they could
in 30 seconds. I gave them special instructions on how to greet each other.
I asked them to greet people as if they were unimportant and they were looking
for someone more important.
After 30 seconds, I asked the participants to greet people as if they were
meeting a long-lost friend. This exercise changed the energy in the room.
My first instructions "de-energized" the group as they wandered
around uninterested in the activity and in the people they were meeting.
With the new instructions about the importance of the people they were going
to meet, the energy in the room rose, and everybody began laughing and having
fun greeting each other. This exercise demonstrates that the leader of the
future will have to manage energy.
I've learned from a colleague and friend, Anthony Robbins, the best-selling
author of Unlimited Power and Waken the Giant Within, that if people are
going to be peak performers in anything, they must know how to change their
energy state. There are two ways that people can change their energy state,
according to Robbins. The first involves what people focus on. My exercise
in Montreal presented the group a positive focus and neutral or negative
focus. The positive focus increased their energy, while the negative focus
limited their energy. For years, Norman Vincent Peale told people that positive
thinkers get better results than negative thinkers.
The second way people can change their energy state is by changing their
physiology-that is, how they breathe, act, walk and so on. Very often, physiology
follows focus. When the participants in my experiment in Montreal held positive
thoughts about the people they were greeting, their physiology changed accordingly
and they acted happy, uplifted and energized. If you put negative thoughts
in your mind, you are apt to get negative results. Positive thoughts, on
the other hand, tend to lead to positive results.
The mind gets confused, however, when you send the mental message, "I
feel great, I feel great," and then you walk with your head down, your
breathing shallow and your voice muffled. When there is a difference between
what you tell your mind and how you behave, the mind believes your behavior
over your words. But if your words and your body are in sync, you are best
able to influence your energy state.
But how do changing states impact the leader of the future? To help people
win, the leader of the future must be able to manage energy and help change
people's states. This is done organizationwide by helping to set a vision
and getting directly involved in the implementation of that vision. Setting
the vision will focus people's attention and provide direction. Once that
vision is set and people commit to it, the leader needs to turn attention
to how people act and perform throughout the organization.
While the vision must start at the top of the organization, everyone must
be able to give input and at least buy into that vision and direction.
Once everybody knows where they are going, however, people in top management
cannot divorce themselves from the implementation process. They must be
facilitators, cheerleaders and supporters of getting the systems, strategies
and behaviors in line with that vision.
There needs to be an alignment of performance with the vision. Here's where
the leader of the future needs to excel as a cheerleader, supporter and
encourager rather than a judge, critic or evaluator. Helping people align
their behavior with the organization's vision will solidify the organizational
state and move energy in the desired direction.
As a result, a lot of organizations will no longer seem to be running as
if "the brakes are on." If you've ever driven a car with the brakes
on, what happens when you finally release them? The car surges forward with
tremendous energy. I think this will happen in organizations when the behavior
and/or implementation of the vision lines up with the vision. There will
be an ultimate organization where people not only know where they are headed
but are empowered-and energized-to get there.
About the author
Ken Blanchard is co-author of the best-selling One Minute Manager
series of books. He has written and co-authored 11 other books. His latest
book is Everyone's a Coach, co-authored with Don Shula.
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