BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 136
The science of stamina has advanced to the point where individuals,
teams, and whole organizations can, with some straightforward
interventions, significantly increase their capacity to get things done.
MANAGING YOURSELF
Manage Your Energy,
Not Your Time
by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy
COPYRIGHT © 2007 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Steve Wanner is a highly respected 37-year-old
partner at Ernst & Young, married with four
young children. When we met him a year ago,
he was working 12- to 14-hour days, felt perpetually exhausted, and found it difficult to fully
engage with his family in the evenings, which
left him feeling guilty and dissatisfied. He
slept poorly, made no time to exercise, and seldom ate healthy meals, instead grabbing a bite
to eat on the run or while working at his desk.
Wanner’s experience is not uncommon.
Most of us respond to rising demands in the
workplace by putting in longer hours, which
inevitably take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. That leads to declining
levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring
medical costs among employees. We at the
Energy Project have worked with thousands
of leaders and managers in the course of
doing consulting and coaching at large organizations during the past five years. With remarkable consistency, these executives tell us
they’re pushing themselves harder than ever
harvard business review • october 2007
to keep up and increasingly feel they are at a
breaking point.
The core problem with working longer
hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy
is a different story. Defined in physics as the
capacity to work, energy comes from four
main wellsprings in human beings: the body,
emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy
can be systematically expanded and regularly
renewed by establishing specific rituals—
behaviors that are intentionally practiced and
precisely scheduled, with the goal of making
them unconscious and automatic as quickly
as possible.
To effectively reenergize their workforces,
organizations need to shift their emphasis
from getting more out of people to investing
more in them, so they are motivated—and
able—to bring more of themselves to work
every day. To recharge themselves, individuals
need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting
behaviors and then take responsibility for
changing them, regardless of the circumstances they’re facing.
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