Positive Relational Energy

Today I want to thank Dr. Sheetal Ajmani for helping me learn a new term - Positive Relational Energy. Before this afternoon, I hadn't heard this term before, but certainly have experienced it numerous times in my life.

According to Oxford-Review.com, relational energy is the positive feeling and sense of increased resourcefulness experienced as a direct result of an interaction with someone else. Some people seem to increase our energy, positivity and sense of resourcefulness whilst others either have no impact or drain our energy.

I talk a lot about the role leaders play in creating and sustaining an engaging work culture. What kind of leader you are showing up as does matter! And now there is data backing that up. I love how this #harvardbusinessreview article breaks down the role of a leader and how that impacts culture, innovation, and financial performance.

So much of this article resonated, but the statement, "...the greatest predictor of success for leaders is not their charisma, influence, or power. It is not personality, attractiveness, or innovative genius. The one thing that supersedes all these factors is positive relational energy: the energy exchanged between people that helps uplift, enthuse, and renew them." just hit very differently. As leaders, more than anything, our role is to inspire, to motivate and to help people achieve success.

Samantha, Carmen, Dawna, Noreen and Kety I immediately thought of you all because while you all do have charisma, innovative genius and many of the traditional predictors for "great" leadership, what each of you really have is this incredible ability to energize a team - and all in your own unique ways. You all exhibit actions that I hope we get to see in more leaders, like compassion, humility, kindness, generosity, and gratitude.

I also like that the article talks about positive energy as more than a demonstration of what I like to call "nice." It says, "Positive energy, however, is not the superficial demonstration of false positivity, like trying to think happy thoughts or turning a blind eye to the very real stresses and pressures overloaded employees are experiencing. Rather, it is the active demonstration of values." Nice is no longer enough. We have to be open, curious and prepared to engage in dialogue to that helps our teams, even if that dialogue is perceived as difficult. Read more about the difference between nice and kind here.

And the numbers don't lie. According to the article, positive energizers produce substantially higher levels of engagement, lower turnover, and enhanced feelings of well-being among employees.

In the end for a a business to sustain and thrive, it must have engaged, creative, and innovative people, excited to get to work!

Read the full article here.

#businessacceleration #peopleandculture #leadership #kindculture#culturerehabilitation #greatresignation #employeeburnout