NATURAL ENERGY IS A SUBTLY DIFFERENT CONCEPT TO TALENT. Talent refers to a natural ability to do specific things. Natural Energy refers to a tendency in a specific direction. It’s a more adaptable idea than talent, and it really matters when people are working in teams, where a good balance of abilities achieves a lot, while imbalance often hurts team performance.
Think of two professional soccer players. Both will naturally share purpose and passion with respect to soccer. However, one player may have the natural energy of a striker, while the other might have the natural energy of a goalkeeper, or a defender.
In the business world, understanding your Natural Energy will help you to determine your personal strengths and weaknesses, and therefore which areas of business you are best suited for. It will also help you to determine the type of people
whom you need around you to realize your dreams, and theirs.
When You Understand your Natural Energy, You Will:
LET’S LOOK AT THE IDEA OF NATURAL ENERGY in the context of growing your business. There are many tools in the market that can help you with this process. However, I have one that I prefer. Carl Bates, founder of Sirdar Group, articulated this thinking in his Contribution Compass[1]. To start, he explains the four different Natural Energy orientation points:
ACTIVATING (NORTH)
SPARKS CHANGE AND ACCELERATES, bringing new thinking to challenges and tackling problems head-on. Brings the bigger picture into clear focus and allows team members to see where they are headed. When not balanced, Activating Energy can exhaust the team.
INSPIRING (EAST)
IGNITES THE SPARK IN OTHERS, and rallies the team to support the shared vision, and to excel in doing it. Left unbalanced, Inspiring Energy can focus too much on individual feelings and can struggle to deal with the specific tasks needed to get the job done.
SUSTAINING (SOUTH)
THE CORRECT ENERGY TO IMPLEMENT IDEAS and turn a short-term vision into a long-term reality. This is a pragmatic energy that understands the mix of resources, elements and pace required to get the job done. Without external influence, Sustaining Energy can get bogged down in the details and can hurt value by focusing only on the tried and tested.
TEMPERING (WEST)
A REFINING EYE AND A RAZOR-SHARP ATTENTION TO DETAIL, Tempering Energy is analytical and accurate and brings a factual perspective to teams and projects. At its best, it drives continuous improvement, but left on its own, it can hurt teams through a lack of focus on the human dynamics at play.
Building a Team Where Contributions are Maximized
ALL HUMANS HAVE A UNIQUE SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES AT PLAY in their lives that will see them think, work and play in a unique way. The Contribution Compass* looks to build a team in a way that takes advantage of the mix of people within a team by balancing their Broad Natural Energies. To do this, it imagines a set of eight operational ‘types’ that fit within the broad North-South-East-West divisions.
CATALYST
A CATALYST IS A PERSON WHO NATURALLY BRINGS CHANGE through accelerating a reaction or interaction, getting raw substance to interact in a vibrant and new way. Catalysts are vital in any team. Without their presence, it’s tricky to explore new ideas, and figure out ways to turn thinking into action.
CHAMPION
A CHAMPION IS A PERSON WHO, LIKE A THUNDERBOLT OR A STRIKE OF LIGHTNING, shakes up
the status quo and stirs up people to pay attention to a message. Every project and team need a Champion at certain stages. Someone who advocates for resources and attention in public, or within parts of the business who may not care about this team and its mission.
COACH
A COACH IS A PERSON WHO IGNITES THE FIRE AND PASSION OF OTHERS to work together as
a team focused on bringing a central idea to life. As in the sports world, in business life, Coaches are the quiet but essential glue – they are the people with the ability to ensure that everyone can talk as well as listen to what is said.
CONNECTOR
A CONNECTOR IS A PERSON WHO BRINGS PEOPLE, IDEAS AND RESOURCES TOGETHER, and as a river flows into a lake,
connectors have a special gift that can unite the right people at the right time and place. Connectors are different to Coaches in the sense that they can see connections and relationship opportunities in a unique way. They bring new and unexpected forces and personalities together.
CUSTODIAN
A CUSTODIAN IS A PERSON WHO CAN NURTURE AND SUPPORT THE IDEAS OF OTHERS and bring
them to life, while guarding and protecting the assets and resources under their care. Custodians are the hidden force of many project teams. They are the people who operate in quiet partnership with the Coach and others to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
CULTIVATOR
A CULTIVATOR IS A PERSON WHO GUIDES AND SHAPES THE GROWTH OF A TEAM, project or
enterprise through a subtle influence that seeks to adjust, refine and develop. Cultivators are good at critical thinking and digging into the details that many other people overlook. This doesn’t mean they are necessarily critical people, it’s just that they have an eye for the tricky stuff that others may not see.
CONDUCTOR
LIKE THE CONDUCTOR OF AN ORCHESTRA, A CONDUCTOR IS A PERSON WHO uses
focused and efficient energy to direct the singular instruments of the team into a unified and optimized collective. If the Custodian is the hidden force, the Conductor provides a more public form of team energy. Conductors get people going and keep them going.
CALIBRATOR
A CALIBRATOR IS A PERSON WHO ensures that the instruments used to create value are continuously refined and adjusted where necessary. It’s been said that “you’ll never understand it if you don’t know how to measure it”. Calibrators allow us to close the feedback loop and assess how close we’ve come to achieving our initial objectives.
Why Should You Care About the Team?
BUSINESS MAY FEEL LIKE A SOLO ENDEAVOUR, especially when you are the one starting, owning and managing a company. The reality is that it is very seldom a one-man show. Almost always, businesses involve groups of people working together.
If you don’t understand your own Natural Energy and abilities, and if you haven’t gone to the effort of understanding your particular skills, you will struggle to create effective teams for your business. Equally, you will struggle to find your own place in the teams that you create. Also, it’s vital to remember that not everyone will start their own business from scratch.
Often entrepreneurs join existing teams and add their passion and commitment to something that’s already on the go. You could end up joining a small three-man start-up, or a bigger company starting a new division. Regardless, if you understand your own Natural Energy, you’ll put yourself in a great position to make decisions that are right for you and your team.
A WHILE AGO I WAS HELPING A COMPANY TO PUT TOGETHER A TEAM OF EMPLOYEES. We scheduled the usual round of interviews, but I also asked that the company carry out psychometric testing on the candidates.
There’s nothing sinister about this sort of testing. All it does is seek to understand areas of strength and weakness. Some people think in pictures and images; others think in sentences. Some people like working in big groups; others like to fly solo. Some have issues with personal discipline; others are self-motivators.
The tests revealed that one candidate might struggle with personal motivation and issues working in teams. This was surprising, because he interviewed very well, and showed great promise. The company and I discussed hiring him at great length.
Eventually the decision was taken to prioritize the interview over the test indicators, and he was hired. Three months later, the symptoms suggested by the test started to show. The employee started to experience fractures in his team relationships and his performance quickly dipped to below unacceptable. He had to be let go.
What are the lessons in this story?
Let’s start with the obvious. Psychometric testing should not be used as the only tool to assess your strengths and weaknesses, nor anyone else’s.
However, it can be one of several valuable tools that help you identify areas of personal focus.
It can be applied to team members, as per the example above. But that’s not our context. Our context is entrepreneurial business. Our context is you. And in this context, a psychometric test process can help you to define several important aspects of yourself:
If you combine a psychometric test with the Natural Energy approach, you will put yourself in a very good position to understand how, where, and when you should be thinking about entrepreneurial business – if at all!
