TIME/ENERGIES/WISDOM/SKILLS/CREATIVITY

Last week, I initiated a rather detailed exploration of my definition of Employee Engagement:

The investment of an individual’s time, energies, wisdom, skills, and creativity in her/his job function, team/department objectives, and company purpose.

This week, we continue to explore the five “engagement components” at the top of this post.

Three forms of energy are relevant to one’s engagement: physical energy, mental energy, and emotional/spiritual energy. Very distinct yet very closely related.

Each energy type is reinforced and refueled in different ways. Yet the decline of any energy type puts a drain on the other types.

Today, let’s look briefly at physical energy. [For information about mental energy and emotional/spiritual energy, click here.]

The employee who possesses abundant physical energy can much more readily engage in tasks at hand, additional projects, and big picture efforts. The energy whose physical energy ebbs may have proportionate difficulty with any (or all) of those engagements.

The indication is simple. It pays off in greater employee engagement if you and the employees make advantage of physical energy boosts before, during and after the work day.

• Take Break Walks. Even a slightly brisk 5-minute walk during one’s morning, lunch or afternoon break, bolsters her energy. If there’s an outdoor path, so much he better. If not, a walk around the office or up/down a couple of flights of stairs will do.

• S-t-r-e-t-c-h. Whether one goes for all-out stretches or the sit-at-your-desk-and-stretch type, he’s doing his energy a favor. Stiff, tight muscles in the neck, the shoulders, the back, the thighs, anywhere pull down one’s energy. Youtube has thousands of video clips on stretching. Here are two articles (not video!) you may find useful:
  • Morning Stretch Exercises
  • Yoga at Your Desk Stretches

• Drink Up! Certainly, water is the #1 recommendation: cheap, relatively plentiful, and good for you. Fruit juices are good too, as they add additional vitamins. Old rules about 8 8-ounce glasses per day should not be viewed as hard and fast for everyone. Factors such as your body size, how much you exercise, how much caffeine (which increases fluid loss) you consume determine where in the 4 to 8 (or more) glasses of water range you fall.

• Eat Healthy; Eat S L O W L Y. Gulping a meal (typically breakfast or lunch) puts one’s digestive system in overdrive. That consumes energy otherwise put to better uses. The additional 10-15 minutes you can spend leisurely enjoying lunch more than pay you back with greater energy later in the day.

Please keep this in mind. By providing yourself and your workforce reminders and opportunities of the importance of the three energy types, you increase your company’s employee engagement.