The Leadership Skill No One Talks About: Energy
May 2026 | Episode 014
Why emotionally intelligent leaders also manage their energy, not just their time.
Lately, with the emergence of noticeably longer days and more sunshine, energy has been on my mind.
Not the coffee-and-a-good-night's-sleep kind of energy, though that matters too. What I really mean is the energy you carry into a room, the way you respond when someone catches you off guard, or the energy your team picks up on before you've even said a single word.
I used to think good leadership was mostly a time management problem. Get the calendar right, get more done, and everything else would follow. A lot of us start there. But working alongside so many of you over the years, I've come to see it differently. Time is the container. Energy is what fills it (or doesn't).
When your energy is steady, you think more clearly. You listen better. You can hold space for your team even when things are messy. However, when it's depleted, everything costs more. The conversation that should take five minutes drains you. The decision that should feel straightforward feels heavy and indecisiveness appears.
Energy Is Emotional, Too
Here's something I've seen play out in almost every team I've worked with: the leader's emotional state sets the weather.
When you walk in calm and grounded, the room tends to settle. When you walk in frazzled or braced for something, people feel that too, often before you've even said anything. Research in emotional intelligence backs this up. We unconsciously mirror the signals of those around us, especially the people leading us.
This is why self-awareness is one of the most practical qualities to be found in a leader. When you can notice what state you're in, you can actually do something about it.
Where Energy Gets Drained
In my experience, most leaders aren't struggling with motivation. What they're dealing with is fragmentation, or energy being pulled in too many directions at once.
The constant demands. The emotional weight of decisions. The tension that never quite gets addressed. The back-to-back meetings with no room to breathe. Individually, these feel manageable. Over time, they add up, and we feel it in our focus and our ability to stay connected to and patient with the people around us.
3 Ways Leaders Can Protect Their Energy
The good news is that this doesn't require a complete overhaul. Small, consistent practices can make a real difference.
Pause before you respond.
Before an important conversation or meeting, take a moment to check in with yourself. A few intentional moments or even a cycle of deep breathing can genuinely shift the tone you bring into the room.
Let emotions inform you, not run you.
Instead of pushing feelings aside, get curious about what they're pointing to, whether that’s a boundary that needs setting, a conversation that's overdue, or a priority that needs to shift. Take time daily to practice your emotional fitness and tap into perceiving and understanding what emotions you are experiencing.
Build in small moments of recovery.
We tend to think restoration means a vacation. But energy is also rebuilt in our daily habits: taking a real lunch break, going out for a walk, prioritizing a conversation that actually fills you up, stepping away from the screen for ten minutes, or making time for an awesome energy-restoring workout that fills you up.
These aren't dramatic changes, but they do compound - for you, and for the people around you.
Bite-Sized Wisdom for Big Impact from Our Coaches
Something to Sit With
Leadership isn't only about what we do, it's also about how we show up. And how we show up starts with how we're doing on the inside.
I've watched so many talented leaders burn themselves out not because they lacked skill or commitment, but because no one ever told them their energy was something worth protecting.
You're worth that kind of care, and so are the people you lead.
With optimism,
Jillian & Team
McLaughlin Mentoring Inc.