High-performing leaders often share the same instinct when demands increase: work longer hours.
More meetings. More email. More late nights.
But the research is clear. This approach eventually backfires.
Time is finite.
Energy is renewable.
In their well-known Harvard Business Review article “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time,” Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy argue that sustainable performance depends less on how many hours you work and more on how effectively you manage and renew your energy.
For leaders who steward their performance intentionally, that distinction matters.
The Leadership Trap: More Hours, Less Capacity
Consider the case of Steve Wanner, a partner at Ernst & Young. At 37, he was highly respected and deeply committed to his work. Yet he found himself working 12–14 hour days, sleeping poorly, skipping exercise, and struggling to be present with his family in the evenings.
Despite his talent and dedication, his energy was depleted.
This experience is increasingly common among leaders. As demands rise, many simply extend their work hours. But over time, that approach leads to:
• Declining engagement
• Reduced focus and creativity
• Higher stress and burnout
• Strained relationships at work and at home
The core issue is simple:
you cannot expand time, but you can expand capacity.
Energy, the capacity to work, can be intentionally built and renewed.
The Four Dimensions of Leadership Energy
Schwartz and McCarthy’s research identifies four primary sources of energy that drive human performance:
1. Physical Energy – The Body
Sleep, nutrition, movement, and recovery.
2. Emotional Energy – The Quality of Your Interactions
Positive emotions like appreciation, purpose, and connection fuel engagement and collaboration.
3. Mental Energy – Your Ability to Focus
Deep, uninterrupted concentration dramatically improves productivity and decision-making.
4. Spiritual Energy – Meaning and Purpose
Alignment with values and purpose fuels perseverance and long-term commitment.
When leaders strengthen all four dimensions, their capacity for high performance increases significantly.
This aligns with what we know about resilient leadership: well-being and performance are not competing priorities. They are interdependent.
What the Data Showed
In one pilot program at Wachovia Bank, employees were trained to build small, repeatable energy renewal rituals across these four dimensions.
The results were striking.
Compared with a control group, participants produced:
• 13% higher growth in loan revenue
• 20% greater gains in deposit revenue
• Significant improvements in customer relationships and engagement
In other words: renewed leaders perform better.
Not because they worked longer.
Because they worked with greater capacity.
The Power of Small Rituals
One of the most powerful insights from the research is that capacity grows through rituals, not intentions.
Small behaviors practiced consistently become automatic.
Examples include:
→ Protecting 7–8 hours of sleep
→ Taking renewal breaks every 90–120 minutes
→ Scheduling focused “sprints” for deep work
→ Expressing appreciation regularly
→ Ending the workday with a short transition ritual before arriving home
These practices may seem simple. But over time, they dramatically increase a leader’s ability to think clearly, regulate emotion, and sustain performance.
And perhaps most importantly, leaders who model these behaviors give their teams permission to do the same.
A Leadership Reflection
If leadership is about influence, then how you manage your own energy matters.
Your team watches how you:
• handle pressure
• manage boundaries
• renew yourself
• show up emotionally and mentally
When leaders operate from depletion, it eventually spreads through the organization.
But when leaders operate from renewed capacity, the opposite happens.
Energy becomes contagious.
Three Questions for This Week
Take five minutes to reflect:
- Where in your leadership is your energy most depleted right now? Body, emotions, mind, purpose, or otherwise?
- What one small ritual could help restore it?
- What signal does your current behavior send to the people you lead?
Leadership sustainability begins with self-awareness.
A Final Thought
Many leaders try to manage their calendars more aggressively.
But the real opportunity is deeper.
Manage your energy, and your time will take care of itself.
If you’re serious about stewarding your leadership performance capacity intentionally, this is exactly the work we explore in my course Resilience in Leadership, where we translate the research on well-being, energy management, and resilience into practical leadership habits that sustain high performance over the long run.
Because leadership excellence isn’t about burning brighter.
It’s about burning longer and stronger.
I’m rooting for you.
CURATED RESOURCES
The Future of Leadership is Energy: How Companies Transform Culture, Engagement, and Performance in 90 Days, by Nell Derick Debovoise Dewed for Forbes
The Best Leaders Have a Contagious Positive Energy, by Drs. Emma Seppala and Kim Cameron for the American Association for Physician Leadership
