Some time ago I started talking to a number of my clients about ‘charging’ behaviours. We live in a world of high drain devices, mobile phones, cameras, laptops and tablets and it seems we end up spending a lot of time looking for the right USB or power adaptor to keep our devices ‘fully charged and ready to perform’! I had the passing thought that with all the different plugs and connections, I’m just glad I don’t then also have to worry about what flavour ‘fuel’ all my devices need to perform effectively. If I had to worry about putting the electrical equivalent of ’91 in my phone, ’98 in my laptop and diesel in my camera – I think I would probably have some form of technological meltdown!
Finding what motivates you
I got to thinking about human analogies and what things ‘charge’ or ‘drain’ us as people. What do we need, beyond the basics of food and sleep, to keep us energised and performing optimally?
As well as my recruitment work, HR and team development consulting, I also do some leadership and development coaching. In November, over the course of a single week, I found myself giving exactly the opposite advice to two different coaching clients. This made me worry the suspicion aired by my wife that, ‘Rob just makes it all up as he goes along!’ may have more truth to it than I had credited….!
Both clients were feeling drained and low in energy. The first is a natural introvert who was managing a large scale organisational change project involving almost constant meetings. The other, a natural extrovert, was buried in a complex reporting project and spending hours on end alone in their office alone putting together a high level written strategic plan.
My advice to both was similar but different – both are capable leaders who are socially confident communicators. The introvert had simply forgotten than they weren’t naturally ‘charged’ by people contact. This person is great at being with people and highly effective, yet gradually was feeling more and more drained by not taking enough time to ‘find space in their own head’. My advice to this person was to take time out alone. Make a couple of times in the day for reflection and cognitive processing and ensure that ‘free’ time gave opportunities to be quiet, walk, read, listen to music or whatever worked to allow her the peace needed to re-charge.
The extrovert on the other hand was having way too much time alone and was being ‘drained’ by the lack of people contact. They were attending to health needs by heading out on long bike rides and heading to the gym with their favourite workout playlist, both very healthy, yet solo activities. My advice was to get social, do team sports, invite friends around, go party or hit the gym with a friend rather than headphones.
Finding ‘me’ time
By the following session both of my clients had taken the time to make a few modest changes to their routines and were feeling better, more energised and more able to commit to the demands of their roles. They had quite simply reminded themselves what ‘me time’ meant for them. They had remembered the activities in their lives that plugged them in and charged them up!
The key learning for me from this was a reminder that often our advice to people and the way we treat them is based on an assumption that; whatever we like, whatever charges us up and keeps us performing optimally, will also work for everyone else. We then blithely tell people that they should be doing the same things we do in order to feel good about themselves…forgetting that they may need something completely different than us to re-energise.
In the workplace we can do the same and forget that our people need different things from us as in order to perform optimally.
There are likely certain people in your world who come to life when in the spotlight, who thrive under attention and positively glow with energy the more they are around people. They enjoy the rewards, the accolades, speeches on their behalf, whoops and cheers whenever they walk past…..extroverts! Conversely the opposite applies and we also know those quiet achievers who shun the limelight and who spend more time thinking than talking and who find their happy place in a walk in the park or a good book….
Finding the right rewards and recognition
This is also a reminder from a leadership and management perspective that the people in our business may be motivated and charged by a wide variety of things. There are no ‘one size fits all’ reward and recognition programs that will guarantee engagement, vitality and success and it is well worth considering what the individual differences might be within your business.
On a more personal level though, why not take a little time to think about what charges you – perhaps part of our commitment to ourselves could be to recognise what charges us up and make sure we gift ourselves the time for those things, activities or people that keep us humming happily along…..