The more pressured the environment in which you’re practicing, the more challenging it is to manage your energy throughout the day. And yet, good “energy management” is essential if you want to optimize your efficiency and your effectiveness.
The October 2007 Harvard Business Journal profiles the impact of a simple training program to help employees of a major bank manage their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy while on the job.
The bottom line? Compared to a control group of equal size who did NOT get the training, the experimental group of 106 loan officers outperformed their control group colleagues by 20 percent in year-over-year revenue. 68 percent of the group that received the training “ . . . reported that it had a positive impact on their relationship with their clients . . . and 71 percent said that it had a noticeable or significant impact on their productivity. . . .”
Tony Schwartz, co-author of the HBJ article, has developed an “Energy Audit” to help identify how we’re operating in each of the four “energy dimensions” mentioned above. You can take the audit and access some excellent resources here: http://www.theenergyproject.com/.
We all know that the practice of law is a high-pressure career and that those drawn to it tend to be skeptical of the role of “soft skills” in their professional success. However, Schwartz and others make a powerful business case for why these skills (such as attending to your energy during the day) matter.
Your cognitive acuity, your sense of personal satisfaction, your physical health, and your emotional well-being all flow from your overall energy — and contribute to your performance. So take a few minutes one evening this week to take the Energy Audit. Your clients, your colleagues, your staff, and your family will all benefit as you learn to even out your ups and downs and boost your overall effectiveness. And you’ll be happier as a result.
