Damaging Business Virus Needs To Be Eradicated
“It’s really hard to adapt, learn, grow, care, create or simply handle life’s challenges when we’re energy depleted.”
ExIQ Insight
The pace of modern business life is creating a national human energy crisis according to a recent joint survey by the University of Sydney and human performance firm Energx.
The survey showed that women who participated in the survey reported feeling energised enough to carry out their important activities on just four out of every 10 days. This compared with men, who felt energised for five out of 10 days.
When I recently took part in the Public Sector Network Women in Leadership Roadshow, my general observation was that this tiredness was very evident.
One story shocked me. A speaker shared that she had a heart attack at 44 because she was just doing, doing and doing at the expense of her health. She thought she had pulled a muscle in her shoulder. When she finally went to the doctor, she was rushed to emergency and half her heart was dying. She was very lucky to survive the ordeal.
(Important side note – for women, the heart attack symptoms are not what you see in the movies. Our symptoms can be as simple as indigestion or a niggling back pain that won’t go away as this story highlights.)
The virus that is invading business life is this belief that you need to be ‘always on’. The viral impact is that you may be considering that sleep is over-rated and skipping the right amount along with skipping meals. Also, humans were designed to physically move. Our modern offices have us sitting at desks staring at computers with minimal movement for long periods. This inactivity, along with your tiredness and your feeling of lack of time from always being on, may deplete your desire to move outside of your working life which may affect your exercise regimen.
Fuel is the foundation of our energy. We are energised when we sleep, eat and move well.
The ‘always on’ virus results in chronic tiredness which then depletes so much more. It is challenging to have sustainable engagement, flow and fulfilment with work, ourselves and our significant relationships when we don’t have the energy.
How can we eradicate this virus? Business, organisations and leaders need to take a modern, fresh and caring look at what is happening with their workforce.
A good place to start would be with the volume of emails, messages and other forms of communication that people receive.
Our modern technology is creating this belief that we need to be connected 24/7 or we are going to miss out or worse someone else will be able to do our work.
The challenge is that businesses and organisations are operating in a global world too, so messages do come in 24/7 that need to be dealt with. I heard lots of stories at the Women in Leadership Roadshow around this one aspect of modern work life.
When I started work back in the dark ages, you received a letter in the snail mail and you wrote a reply that was typed and mailed by a secretary or typist. You may not have to deal with the issue in this letter for another week when you received a further response in the mail from who you were communicating with. If it was something urgent, you phoned and actually had a human conversation. What a luxury! Now, everyone wants an instant response with a well-considered and accurate answer that I’m required to type and send to another distant human. Aahhhhh!!!!!!
Our minds are not designed for this onslaught. I can feel my anxiety levels going up just thinking about it.
Modern business practice needs to be caring about human mental and physical health. Perhaps the personal challenges as well as key performance indicators need to be built into performance discussions. Radical thought – perhaps performance will be improved and enhanced when people have more energy.
Leaders need to be setting example too by taking quality time-out for physical and mental health issues and encouraging teams to do the same. Change will only happen when leaders and businesses value the human health of their workforce and acknowledge that the ‘always on’ virus is real, chronic and destructive.
I don’t have all the answers for eradicating this virus. It’s evident though that change is required.
Start the discussion today on what you think a modern, fresh and caring business looks like to ensure maximum energy for its human capital. A place to start is looking at the body of work from the Energx organisation www.energx.com.au.
You may remember my series of articles about the Healthy Mind Platter. My Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Program is built around empowerment for maximum energy.
My next program is scheduled for 9th and 10th August 2018. Please contact me to discuss.
Always happy for comments too.
