Managing the human energy crisis

Kate Bravery

Senior Partner, Global Talent and Assessments Leader

The New Shape of Work interview series addresses the challenges and uncertainty in the current business environment with a focus on how to transition to a more agile workforce for the future.

We are seeing a human energy crisis in workplaces today. Our Global Talent Trends research showed that people are feeling especially depleted. HR is concerned that if we can’t bring back people’s energy, the whole conversation around bringing back to the office is a non-starter.

In this episode, we are talking with Eren Rosenfeld Managing Director, Leadership at The Energy Project about how the challenging environment we’ve been living in, between covid, economic uncertainty and increasing demands on our time, is taxing our collective energy. She shares the four types of energy we should pay attention to, as well as the need to work collectively as individuals and organizations to recognize and resolve the human energy crisis.

Interesting moments from the interview:

"Particularly in the West, but certainly true globally to various degrees, we wear exhaustion and more hours as a badge of honor, as evidence of commitment. I’m not even sure people are aware of the energy that they could be managing, and how to do that right? We sleep less to get more done, and it's creating this disaster."
"At the organization level, we've done a good job of giving people access and changing the policies and things because you can do those. But we need to go deeper and enabling people around their own energy to help them crack that code. That's where the ROI will happen. Because you get higher performance, retention and ultimately a better lived experience at work, and then also the knock on effect in all arenas of your life."
"Be aware and respect that you have four kinds of energy. You have a physical energy, you have an emotional energy, you have a mental energy, and a spiritual or purpose-based, right. You need to take stock of where you are in each. You need to recognize what they mean to you. How they impact you. How it impacts how you show up and perform."
"If you're running one big Marathon, stop. It should be a series of small sprints with renewals. And reflect on that. How are you pulsing between performing and recharging your batteries? Make sure that you're not surviving and burning out, which is where many of us landed. You should be performing and recharging, not surviving and burning out."