♫ Taking all of my energy, energy, energy
Taking all of my energy…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Louis Biancaniello, Rico Love, Sam Watters, Wayne Wilkins; recorded by: Keri Hilson.

Energizer Bunny

This guest post is courtesy of Beth Flynn of the Ohio State University Leadership Center and is one of her “Leadership Moments” emails. The OSU Leadership Center is inspiring others to take a leadership role that empowers the world.

In theory, every person on your team is a source of energy for your organization. But in reality, some team members create energy while others sap or destroy energy. If you know your team well, you already know which team members are sappers and which ones are the energizers.

High-energy performers test the limits and spur themselves and others on to even greater results. These are the people who will push you up and add energy to your reservoir. They spark others to perform. It’s fun to watch them in action. A team full of energized people is typically easy to motivate but challenging to manage because their high energy level requires constant direction and focus.

At the other end of the spectrum are the sappers. You know who they are – they complain and whine, and think of every reason possible why plans and strategies will not work. They are the people who pull you down and sap your energy. They blame others for their issues and don’t accept responsibility for what they control. Their negativity and cynicism effectively sucks out the energy right out of the room. A team dominated by energy sappers is relatively easy to lead because there is little forward movement or activity. But it is very challenging to motivate these team members to achieve results because they are content with mediocrity.

You organizational energy is not the sum of your individuals. It is dependent on the ratio of energizers to sappers. If you have more sappers than energizers, the energy will be drained, and in fact the energizers may eventually become sappers. As unfortunate as it is, a negative, cynical person has a far greater impact on the energy of the team than a positive person. Adding a positive person does not counter a sapper; in fact it probably takes at least three energizers to counter the energy drained by one sapper (Cottrell, p. 33-34).

Based on: Cottrell, D. (2009). Monday Morning Motivation: Five Steps to Energize Your Team, Customers, and Profits. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Monday Morning Motivation is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center. To borrow this resource or any other resource, please go to the resource search page. If you wish to subscribe to the Leadership Moments list: send an e-mail to: flynn.61@osu.edu.

Thanks Beth for always providing us with meaningful, energizing Leadership Moments!