3 ways to improve your energy at work!

I love reindeer (otherwise known as caribou in case you need a game winning trivia question)! I have just now realized this – why it took 47 years I have no clue – they are just flat out cool!                __________________________________
So, how in the world do we get more energy? We have the obvious: Fueling our body with healthy foods, getting enough rest… We will hit some of those on Thursday, but for today, I am talking about energy at work (work being loosely defined, whether you are in the workplace, the community or home). Energy at work is defined by what activities that you work on that give you positive energy? What could you do all day? What activities make you feel at the end of the day fulfilled and if tired, a “good tired.” The goal of today’s blog is to encourage you to figure out what those are and play to them regularly! You’ll be better for it, I promise!

I wanted to figure this out in 2015, and so I found this really great Executive coach, Mike Miller, who works with Forte.  Their consulting firm focuses on a great tool called “Strengthscope” which is all about finding out what your top seven areas are that give you energy at work. After you take the assessment you get a great review that outlines the strengths that give you energy.

If you head over to their website you’ll find a few fun facts: People who use their strengths every day are …

• 6X more likely to be engaged on the job
• 3X more likely to be happier with their lives.  (I’LL TAKE THAT!)

Teams with leaders who take a “stength” based approach are…

• 86% more effective than teams which don’t.

For those that know me, they won’t be surprised at my seven: collaboration, decisiveness, developing others, optimism, relationship building, self-confidence, self-improvement. So essentially, if I’m “playing” in areas that allow me to be doing these things, I am one happy camper. If I’m not on a consistent basis, I may be drained!  A key learning from my time with Mike this year, is that I can “over play” to these. For example, if I’m playing in the collaboration/relationship building space and the colleague I’m working with doesn’t have that in their top seven (or maybe even in their top 25 – haha) that I may be draining them, creating conflict. I need to shift to one of my other top seven deciveness for example, to work better with them, therefore giving me energy. Pretty interesting stuff!                          __________________________________________________________________________________________

So this is longer than my normal post, but worthwhile information! Here are the top three posted in the blog title to wrap it up! I encourage you all to find out in 2016 what gives you energy, and play to those! You will improve your “game” and your life! Top 3 ways to improve your energy at work:

1. Find out what give you energy and play to those. Use Mike’s tool, or stengthfinders, or even make a list. If you don’t think you know, ask your closest colleagues at work, or friends… they will know!
2. Get organized! Yep, sorry to the folks who may not like this one, but honestly, you have to have a gameplan and that includes making a list and reviewing and editing ofte. I do this at least one time a day and often twice a day. Priorities change quickly, at work and in life, and I have to ensure the top items stay at the top of the list, otherwise I’m drained of energy! You will gain energy only by achieving what you know you need to achieve.
3. Make time for fun. I talk a lot about culture, and my friends, no matter if your leader is a culture builder or something more like a culture hit man (or woman) you can influence the culture in your area! Make a decision that you will be the difference within a reasonable radius around your area! Schedule time to walk around and be a culture guru wherever God has placed you! It will give you energy and those around you as well! DOUBLE BONUS!