Operate with energy, not on fumes
Why the final quarter is won by managing your energy, not your diary.
By Joni Peddie, CEO, Resilient People
THERE’S an old piece of Comrades wisdom: you run the first half with your legs and the second half with your head. I can vouch for this; I have run five Comrades. Somewhere past halfway, my legs, feet (and blisters) usually lodge a few formal complaints, and my head has to take over the negotiations.
October is the business equivalent of that second half. The adrenaline of January is long gone, December is visible but not close, and the diary is filling with year-end functions, budget reviews and ‘quick catch-ups’ that are never quick. Matric exams are about to start, and plenty of leaders are quietly parenting through those too.
Last month I wrote about leaders who had slipped into December mode before September was out. This month, I want to talk about the ones who haven’t, and who are trying to push through by managing their time harder: earlier starts, later finishes, calendars colour-coded to within an inch of their lives. I understand the instinct. I own a planner with more tabs than my web browser.
But here’s what I keep seeing in the team performance workshops that I facilitate. People are attempting to work harder, not smarter, and trying to schedule their way out of an energy deficit. Perfectly blocked diaries run by depleted people is a very organised way to be exhausted.
So for October, O is for Operate with energy. Time is fixed. Energy is renewable, if you manage it deliberately.
In my book ‘From CAN’T to CAN DO – 9 Human Capabilities that AI can’t replicate’, I have included a CAN DO Adaptive Leadership Framework that outlines three dimensions: Mental Clarity, Emotional Agility and Physical Nexus (Vitality). Neglect one and the other two pick up the bill.
Here’s how.
- Audit your energy, not your diary. For five working days, mark every meeting and task with a plus or a minus: did it give you energy or drain it? By Friday you’ll see a pattern. Most leaders find two or three predictable drains they can shorten, delegate or move.
- Guard your first 90 minutes. Your sharpest thinking happens early, before the inbox gets its hands on you. Use that window for the one decision or piece of work that actually moves the year forward. Mental Clarity is a morning resource, so stop spending it on email. Your cognitive powers deplete by the afternoon.
- Work in laps, then recover. The brain and body run in cycles of roughly 90 minutes. Do one focused block, then take a genuine break: daylight, water, five minutes on your feet. Comrades taught me this too: the runners who walk the hills on purpose often pass the heroes who sprinted them.
- Name it to tame it. When frustration or anxiety spikes, label the feeling in one word before you respond. Research on ‘emotion labelling’ shows that by simply naming an emotion, the brain’s alarm system calms down. And besides that, your team will feel the difference. This is ‘emotional agility’ in action.
- Treat sleep like a client deadline. As a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist for Insomnia (CBT-I), here’s a simple suggestion and it’s easy-peasy: keep a consistent go-to-bed time and a consistent wake-up time (80% of the time), weekends included, even through year-end function season. Sleep isn’t a reward for finishing the work. It’s what makes the work possible. If you have a consistent wake-up time, your body clock will start to reward you.
None of this needs a retreat or a new app. Pick the strategy that made you wince slightly and start there. The wince is usually the tell. I’m working on number three myself this month, mostly because my planner and I have had words.
And remember, energy is contagious. Your team reads your state before they read your emails. When you operate with energy, you give them permission to do the same.
October isn’t a month to grit your teeth and survive. It’s a month to pace. Three months remain. Run them with your head. Change your words to change your world.
Build change-fit teams. Bounce Forward™ together.
Joni Peddie, CEO, Resilient People
joni@resilientpeople.co.za
+27 82 490 9975
LinkedIn: Joni Peddie
