Welcome to our final installment of The Leader’s Toolbox! We’ve covered presence, feedback, and decision-making. Today, we tackle perhaps the most crucial leadership tool: the ability to maintain your own energy while inspiring others to bring their best effort.
The Energy Paradox
Here’s the leadership challenge nobody warns you about: The more people look to you for motivation and direction, the more your own energy gets depleted. Yet your team’s energy often mirrors yours. When you’re running on empty, they feel it. When you’re genuinely energized, they respond accordingly.
This creates what I call the motivation puzzle: You need to give energy to get energy, but you need energy to give energy. Traditional “motivation” tactics—rah-rah speeches, recognition programs, team-building events—provide temporary boosts but don’t solve the underlying energy equation.
The Motivation Multiplier Effect
Research from positive psychology shows that certain leaders create what Barbara Fredrickson calls “upward spirals” of energy and engagement. These leaders aren’t necessarily the most charismatic or energetic personalities. They’re the ones who understand how motivation actually works at the neurological level.
Sustainable motivation comes from meaning, progress, and connection—not from external incentives alone. When you help others find these three elements in their work, you create energy rather than depleting it.
My Marathon Leadership Lesson
During my single-mom years, I trained for and completed several marathons while working full-time, pursuing my master’s degree, and raising kids. People often asked how I found the energy. The truth was counterintuitive: the running gave me more energy than it took.
I learned something crucial about energy management: Physical energy, emotional energy, and mental energy all interconnect. When one area is strong, it supports the others. When one is depleted, it drains the others.
This lesson transformed my approach to leadership. Instead of seeing motivation as something I needed to manufacture for others, I began seeing it as something we could create together through meaningful work, visible progress, and genuine connection.
The Science of Sustainable Motivation
People are naturally motivated when three conditions align:
Clear Purpose: Understanding why the work matters and how it connects to larger goals
Appropriate Challenge: Tasks that stretch capabilities without creating overwhelm
Immediate Feedback: Regular information about progress and impact
Your role as a leader isn’t to motivate people—it’s to create conditions where their natural motivation can flourish.
The SPARK Framework for Energy Creation
S – Strengths Alignment: People have the most energy when using their natural talents. Regular check-ins about what energizes versus drains team members help you align assignments with strengths.
P – Progress Visibility: Visible progress creates momentum. Help team members see how their daily work contributes to larger goals and celebrate small wins regularly.
A – Autonomy Support: Autonomy is one of three basic psychological needs. Give people ownership over how they achieve goals whenever possible.
R – Relationship Investment: Positive relationships are the strongest predictor of wellbeing and sustained performance. Invest in knowing your team members as individuals.
K – Knowledge Growth: Learning opportunities energize people more than rewards. Provide chances for skill development and new challenges.
Personal Energy Management for Leaders
You can’t give what you don’t have. Sustainable leadership requires intentional energy management across four dimensions:
Physical Energy: Regular exercise, adequate sleep, proper nutrition, and recovery time aren’t luxuries—they’re leadership requirements. Your physical energy directly impacts your emotional and mental capacity.
Emotional Energy: Leaders who practice self-kindness have more emotional resources available for others. This includes setting boundaries, processing stress, and celebrating your own progress.
Mental Energy: Cognitive resources are finite. Protect your mental energy by batching similar tasks, limiting unnecessary decisions, and taking breaks that truly refresh your mind.
Spiritual Energy: This means alignment with your values and sense of purpose. When your work connects to what matters most to you, it generates rather than depletes energy.
The Motivation Conversation Framework
Instead of trying to motivate others through external means, have conversations that help them connect with their own internal motivation:
Discovery Questions
- “What aspects of your work give you the most energy?”
- “When do you feel most proud of what you’ve accomplished?”
- “What skills would you like to develop in the next six months?”
- “How does your work here connect to what matters to you personally?”
Connection Questions
- “How does your role contribute to our team’s success?”
- “What impact are you having on our clients/customers?”
- “Where do you see opportunities to make an even bigger difference?”
Growth Questions
- “What challenges would stretch you in positive ways?”
- “What would help you feel more confident in your role?”
- “How can I better support your professional development?”
Creating Sustainable Team Energy
Teams with shared purpose and mutual support maintain motivation longer than teams relying on individual drive alone.
Team Energy Practices
Weekly Wins: Start team meetings by having each person share one thing they accomplished or learned that week.
Progress Mapping: Create visual representations of team progress toward important goals. Update these regularly so people can see momentum building.
Peer Recognition: Establish systems for team members to acknowledge each other’s contributions. Peer recognition often carries more motivational weight than top-down praise.
Learning Shares: Monthly, have team members teach each other something new they’ve learned. This builds both individual growth and team knowledge.
The Energy Audit
Regularly assess both your own and your team’s energy levels:
Individual Energy Check
- What work activities energize you most?
- What drains your energy unnecessarily?
- Where do you need more support or resources?
- How aligned are your daily tasks with your strengths and interests?
Team Energy Assessment
- What projects or activities generate the most team engagement?
- Where do you see energy leaks or motivation challenges?
- How can you better align individual strengths with team needs?
- What systemic issues might be creating unnecessary energy drain?
When Motivation Feels Impossible
Sometimes, external circumstances make motivation genuinely difficult. During organizational changes, setbacks, or personal challenges, traditional motivation approaches can feel tone-deaf.
During difficult periods, the goal shifts from inspiration to support. Focus on:
- Acknowledging real challenges rather than minimizing them
- Providing extra support and resources where possible
- Maintaining connection even when enthusiasm is low
- Looking for small ways to create meaning and progress
The Long Game of Leadership Energy
Building sustainable motivation—yours and others’—is a long-term investment, not a quick fix. The energy you put into understanding what motivates each team member, creating conditions for flow, and managing your own energy pays dividends over months and years, not days and weeks.
Your Leadership Energy Action Plan
- Complete an energy audit for yourself. Identify what gives versus takes energy.
- Have motivation discovery conversations with three team members.
- Implement one new team energy practice (weekly wins, progress mapping, or learning shares).
- Assess your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy management. Choose one area to strengthen.
The Multiplier Effect
When you create genuine energy and motivation in your team, something remarkable happens: they begin creating it for each other. Your initial investment in understanding and supporting their motivation multiplies as they support each other’s energy and engagement.
This is how great cultures are built—not through programs or policies, but through leaders who understand that motivation is created, not manufactured, and who invest in the conditions that allow natural human energy and purpose to flourish.
What energizes you most in your work? How do you help others connect with their own sources of motivation? Share your energy-creating strategies below—your approach might be exactly what another leader needs.