The Importance of Vitality in Positive Leadership
Vitality is often defined broadly as “energy available to self.”
What does that actually mean?
When we view vitality broadly, it’s hard to know where to focus.
As part of my research on vitality within my PhD program, I am digging into how to grow capacity for it, measure it and cultivate it as a foundation to leadership.
The results of my initial vitality study show there is a new more robust way to understand vitality with the Leader Vitality Scale.
This scale offers a holistic way to understand vitality as a three-factor model, inclusive of: physical, psychological, and emotional energy. It shows the three areas within an overarching construct that are important for how we care for our energy every day. Ultimately, the model provides a roadmap of how to cultivate our own vitality.
“You cannot serve from an empty vessel” –Eleanor Brown
Building vitality as leaders gives us the capacity to serve from a place of abundance.
When we care for our vitality every day, we have the energy resources to show up and perform at our best without depleting ourselves.
Focusing on maximizing our own wellbeing, using the Perma+4 wellbeing model, is at the core of building our vitality which then creates the foundation for positive leadership.
Positive Leadership
What is positive leadership? Positive Leadership doesn’t mean leaders need to be happy or positive all the time. It’s about leaders positively energizing others to create extraordinary results for the organization. Results that go well beyond basic business goals.
“Positive Leadership encourages, empowers, and energizes people, whereas negative leadership drains them, discourages them, and demoralizes them.” (Positive Psychology, Positive Leadership)
As Kim Cameron, Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and one of the founders of Positive Leadership states in his book Positively Energizing Leadership: “The kind of positive energy that most accounts for flourishing in individuals and in organizations is called relational energy.” Relational energy is the energy the occurs within interactions between individuals.
Positive relational energy is the positive energy a leader creates when interacting with others. If the individual is energized after interacting with the leader, that’s positive relational energy.
Positive leaders are the leaders that encourage, empower and energize others. They are “positive energizers” in the workplace vs. “negative energizers.” (Baker, Cross and Wooten)
Kim Cameron’s research shows what a strong impact positive leaders have on performance, including the following: (summarized from Why Energy is so Important for Leaders)
Positive energizers are higher performers
Individuals perform better when they associate with positive energizers
“Top-performing organizations have at least three times more positive energizers than other organizations”
This research suggests what has the greatest impact on performance is the positive energy leaders display in interactions. It’s not just how much information or what skills leaders impart.
Creating Positive Relational Energy with Others
With the importance of leader’s positive energy on performance, how do we create more of it?
It starts with promoting our own vitality.
To create more positive relational energy with others, we need more energy available to self. First, we need to focus on our own vitality to then demonstrate positive energy with another person. We need to have an abundance of the elements of wellbeing that ultimately cultivate our own energy, our own vitality.
When leaders come from a place of full vitality, then they have the capacity to create more positive relational energy with others. In contrast, its challenging to build energizing relationships when depleted.
Coming back to the three core aspects of vitality: Physical, Psychological, and Emotional, consider:
What gives you energy in each of these areas?
How are you doing replenishing your energy in each of these areas?
To explore more, list what replenishes your energy in each category on the Energy Worksheet found here. Be willing to brainstorm: include things that you are currently doing, things you might not have tried or even things you once did as a kid.
The energy worksheet includes one additional category to the three core aspects of vitality: Spirit. While Spirit wasn’t part of the vitality study due to it being a hard concept to measure, it is an important component of energy replenishment.
Once you cultivate your own vitality, you can then focus on strategies to create positive relational energy.
Positive leaders:
Actively listen with a focus on the other person
Express gratitude to others
Are open to feedback and responsive to it
Build trust
Motivate others to be at their best
Celebrate the accomplishments of others
Are willing to forgive others
Illuminate meaning and purpose
Ultimately, positive leaders see the best in humanity and the best in the organization. By seeing the best in others, people rise to the occasion. Positive leadership is a catalyst for human thriving in the workplace.