BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 138
Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time •• •M ANAGING Y OURSELF
healthy behaviors, given all the other demands
in their lives.
Before participants in our program begin to
explore ways to increase their physical energy,
they take an energy audit, which includes
four questions in each energy dimension—
body, emotions, mind, and spirit. (See the exhibit “Are You Headed for an Energy Crisis?”)
On average, participants get eight to ten of
those 16 questions “wrong,” meaning they’re
doing things such as skipping breakfast, failing to express appreciation to others, struggling to focus on one thing at a time, or
spending too little time on activities that give
them a sense of purpose. While most participants aren’t surprised to learn these behaviors
are counterproductive, having them all listed
in one place is often uncomfortable, sobering,
and galvanizing. The audit highlights employees’ greatest energy deficits. Participants also
fill out charts designed to raise their awareness about how their exercise, diet, and sleep
practices influence their energy levels.
The next step is to identify rituals for building and renewing physical energy. When Gary
Faro, a vice president at Wachovia, began the
program, he was significantly overweight, ate
How Energy Renewal Programs Boosted
Productivity at Wachovia
At Wachovia Bank, employees participating in an energy renewal program outperformed a control group of employees, demonstrating significantly greater improvements in year-over-year performance during the first quarter of 2006.
Percentage increase in loan revenues*
Participants
Control group
0
10
20
30
40
50
*From three critical kinds of loans
Percentage increase in deposit revenues
Participants
Control group
0
10
20
harvard business review • october 2007
30
40
50
poorly, lacked a regular exercise routine,
worked long hours, and typically slept no
more than five or six hours a night. That is not
an unusual profile among the leaders and
managers we see. Over the course of the program, Faro began regular cardiovascular and
strength training. He started going to bed at a
designated time and sleeping longer. He
changed his eating habits from two big meals
a day (“Where I usually gorged myself,” he
says) to smaller meals and light snacks every
three hours. The aim was to help him stabilize his glucose levels over the course of the
day, avoiding peaks and valleys. He lost 50
pounds in the process, and his energy levels
soared. “I used to schedule tough projects for
the morning, when I knew that I would be
more focused,” Faro says. “I don’t have to do
that anymore because I find that I’m just as
focused now at 5 PM as I am at 8 AM.”
Another key ritual Faro adopted was to
take brief but regular breaks at specific intervals throughout the workday—always leaving his desk. The value of such breaks is
grounded in our physiology. “Ultradian
rhythms” refer to 90- to 120-minute cycles
during which our bodies slowly move from a
high-energy state into a physiological trough.
Toward the end of each cycle, the body begins
to crave a period of recovery. The signals include physical restlessness, yawning, hunger,
and difficulty concentrating, but many of us
ignore them and keep working. The consequence is that our energy reservoir—our
remaining capacity—burns down as the day
wears on.
Intermittent breaks for renewal, we have
found, result in higher and more sustainable
performance. The length of renewal is less important than the quality. It is possible to get
a great deal of recovery in a short time—as
little as several minutes—if it involves a ritual
that allows you to disengage from work and
truly change channels. That could range from
getting up to talk to a colleague about something other than work, to listening to music
on an iPod, to walking up and down stairs
in an office building. While breaks are countercultural in most organizations and counterintuitive for many high achievers, their value
is multifaceted.
Matthew Lang is a managing director for
Sony in South Africa. He adopted some of
the same rituals that Faro did, including a
page 4
This document is authorized for use only by Michelle Sales (MICHELLESALES@MKHCONSULTING.COM.AU). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact
customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
