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Team Energy Grid
The relentless demands of the C-suite are a breeding ground for exhaustion and stress. According to a 2024 Deloitte Workplace Wellbeing report, 71% of C-suite executives are seriously considering quitting their jobs for better wellbeing support.
One reason for CEO exhaustion is the sheer amount of time they spend at work. According to a Harvard Business Review article, CEOs work an average of 9.7 hours per day and work weekends too – in fact they conducted business on 79% of weekend days.
We can’t stretch time to reduce the long hours and weekend work you have to do, but there is a way to reduce the amount of exhaustion and stress you face as a result. It’s called energy management.
The impact of poor energy management
We tend to be fixated on how we manage our time and maximise every hour of our day. The real challenge is not how we manage our time but how we manage our energy. More than that, it’s how we manage our energy on an ongoing basis and not see it as something we restore at the weekend – if you do get a break from work – or when we’re on holiday.
With extra energy, we can achieve more in one hour than we can in 10 when we’re ‘running on empty’. We achieve more in the time we have, and we get more out of the people we lead as well. We’re not stressed, we have better emotional intelligence, and we can energise others too.
Poor energy management is not only debilitating for leaders, but it can also impact the quality of our leadership and decision making. When we’re tired, we find it harder to think straight, we may be more volatile and say things that we might regret.
Both the content and the quality of our decision making is determined by our physiology and that’s also what determines our energy levels.
Objectively measuring your energy levels
How do you know you’re running on empty? The good news is that you don’t have to wait until the damage is done from poor decision-making, feeling exhausted or snapping at colleagues. Instead, you can quickly and easily measure your energy levels now, before you suffer the consequences. And you can do so objectively.
We can use the variability of the heart’s electrical signal (Heart Rate Variability – HRV) to quantify the ‘vitality’ of the human system. HRV is a way to measure both the quantity and quality of our energy.
All we need to do is gather HRV data via a 24-hour heart monitor. It’s part of Complete’s Energy Audit assessment and one of the most important assessments a leader could ever undertake.
Picking up on the warning signals
The great thing about an HRV assessment is that it can identify potential energy issues way before they start to impact a CEO’s performance. You don’t have to wait until you’re feeling overwhelmed, to get an understanding of your energy levels and where they’re heading. In fact, the earlier you identify potential issues, the quicker and easier it is to recalibrate your physiology and learn how to better manage your energy levels.
Poor HRV – and poor energy management – can’t be fixed by a pill, but it can be improved with many of the coherence-creating skills we teach at Complete.
How’s your energy?
Even if you don’t currently feel stressed or under too much pressure, it’s worth thinking about getting an insight into your energy levels. A simple 24-hour HRV assessment is not just about showing you how to have more energy, it can also set the foundation for your organisation’s success too.
Over 100 leaders took the Complete Energy Audit in 2024, we’re confident it could work for you too. Drop us an email and ask about the Complete Energy Audit assessment for leaders.
