You are energy. What you think begins it. What you feel amplifies it. What you action will determine what happens next.

Tapping into your mind, heart and body from an energetic level can greatly assist self-motivation. When you are in sync with your motivations, you are more aware of how others are motivated.

My brother and sister are people I admire; they both have the ability to stay on track and be motivated in challenging times. Many others would have caved in and given up, but they both have an innate ability to know what they need to do to stay focused, and be the best they can be in their current situations. They emit a tenacious energy to keep on going.

Be an energetic leader

In a professional context, being an energetic leader means you can lead and influence a team or decision to high performance, morale and motivation by tapping into the existing motivators, energy, purpose and strength of each individual. By focusing on true commitment, effective communication and authentic connection, you can provide clear direction and motivation to the team, in conjunction with opportunity for individuals, the team and the organisation to grow and succeed. As a leader, your energy can provide the fuel to lead effectively a team and organisation often lacking in direction and will.

Energised people typically choose to behave in ways that enable success. You see them. They stand out and have a contagious aura about them. They are usually proactive, conscientious and resilient and have what I call a Limitless Mindset.

The word resilient comes from the Latin word ‘resilire’, which means to leap back, or withdraw.

It is easier to bounce or leap back if you have deep-seated awareness of what you need in order to do this. Conversely, when people become drained or listless, they are much more likely to act in ways that undermine their success and that of their team. Having a conscious awareness of your motivations will spark your energy because doing what motivates you lights you up from within.

In the model above, you can identify where you sit with regard to awareness of your motivation and fulfilling your motivations.

Stagnant

Here, you are sinking in the mudflats of nowhere. You have low or no motivation, with low activity. Nothing much is happening, and you are on autopilot. You do what you do without knowing why. Performance is average here, as you have zero drive. You are plodding along. People in this stage are sometimes labelled lazy;

actually, they are usually unaware and bored.

The signs of being in the stagnant quadrant are:

  • boredom
  • unchallenged
  • unawareness of motivation
  • low energy and will
  • limited activity

Bursting

At this stage, you are bursting in activity mode. You have no real understanding of what is motivating you, but you keep going. I see many people in this quadrant. They are typically running around the office, at all hours, like a tornado, energetically doing a lot of busy but not really doing the right things with clear motivational direction. To move up to ‘activated’, they need to ramp up their awareness of what is really motivating them.

The signs of being in the bursting quadrant are:

  • busy
  • feeling productive without direction
  • scattered
  • driven and energetic
  • feel like something is missing

Stifled

In this stage, you are highly motivated but low on energy. This may be due to not getting to do the things that motivate you in your role. This can get tiring, and is often referred to as ‘wrong job fit’. We call this stage ‘stifled’ because here you are a flame continually being snuffed out. To move across to ‘activated’, you need to have alignment of what motivates you and the role you are doing and then act on it.

The signs of being in the stifled quadrant are:

  • low energy
  • motivated but no real action
  • listless
  • incongruent

The keys to moving to ‘activated’ are identifying and aligning what motivates you to your role as a leader and being disciplined to drive your awareness of what is and isn’t motivating.

Activated

If you are here, great. This is where you want to be. In ‘activated’ you are highly motivated and aware of what is driving you. By being authentic to your motivation, there is heart in your energy. Your energy is high, clear and authentic. (We want to capture and bottle the essence of those in this quadrant.) You know what motivates you and you’re doing the right things for the right reason. You feel fulfilled and on purpose.

Many leaders in this area cascade this energy onto their teams, which can assist in a high performing team—a super team.

 The signs of being in the activated quadrant are:

  • energetic
  • self-aware
  • magnetic
  • highly motivated
  • driven
  • in flow

Self-motivation is internal, and we all have parts of our role that don’t motivate us. If we feed and satisfy our motivation at least 70 per cent of the time, we can lead our purpose with real belief and a strong mindset, and project the energy we need to bring our team forward.

Self-motivation can fuel you forward and not only will you gain internal energy; your interpersonal, team and organisational energy will lift. I was once part of a team led by a self-motivated, passionate and driven leader. Their leadership was infectious.

Make no mistake, self-motivation and tapping into this is another layer of the ‘being’ part of leadership.

Look at where you sit and what you need to do to activate your motivation that can then lead to energetic leadership and performance.

To being “limitless”

Renée Giarrusso