Leadership Energies: Feeling The Wind In Your Sails
Thoughts and Images - Natalie Shering
In this series ‘All At Sea’ I am using my photographs to provide visual metaphor and kick start a conversation about different energy states and how they might manifest in us at different times. The NRR* methodology helps us to notice and recognise these different states when we are encountering them, and to build in time to reflect and respond accordingly. In the first two instalments of ‘All At Sea’, I explored the Low Energy/High Stress state of being in ‘The Doldrums’ and the High Energy/High Stress state of ‘Weathering The Storm’.
Here is another image from my lockdown archives, taken on a sunny Sunday at the beginning of December last year. It was a beautiful blustery winter’s day, fresh and clear. The ground round about where I live on the South Downs was more than a bit soggy underfoot (we had not yet had our first run of the frosts that would ice up the landscape later on in the season) and my wife and I were craving a change from the clag of muddy boots and splattered trouser legs that our usual walk in the woods would inevitably lead to. So, she and I set off to a nearby stretch of coast to walk along the concreted promenade, achieve our daily apportionment of steps, and get a much-needed fix of salty sea spray.
West Sussex’s 50 miles of coastline is totally different from that in the east of the county, in that it has no cliffs at all and is utterly flat (save for a short line of sand dunes at Littlehampton). It looks out across grey pebbles and brown shingle, over the Channel in the direction of France, with only the Rampion offshore wind farm and an occasional distant tanker to disrupt the view. As a result of this geography, the skies are vast, and often the view is solely made up of two horizontal blocks formed by the luminous sky and the sea as it’s dark reflection. On this day, however, Sussex’s sailors were making the most of the favourable conditions and were out in force, punctuating the wide canvas of sea and sky with bright splashes of colour. The three boats in the photograph made a particularly arresting image, with their billowing orange, blue, black and white sails popping vibrantly against the largely monochrome background. They were sailing at a high rate of knots and, the apparent ease with which they were shooting across the water made them seem to be the very definition of effortless motion.
These small vessels are perfectly sculpted to cut through the waves, their lines are set in such a way that they can harness the full power of the wind with no resistance to forward progression. The boats are at one with the environment that they are inhabiting and they literally have the wind in their sails. The image embodies for me the metaphor of being in a High Energy/Low Stress state. This is the state we are in we are engaged, when we become energised in a positive way. We usually do our best work when inhabiting the High Energy/Low Stress state – we have the impetus and momentum to move us in the direction we want to go and there are no hidden reefs or rocks to leave us high and dry, no chance of us running aground. With the aim of reaching this frictionless state more often, it is useful to understand what has to happen in order for us to be there, and to notice the warning signs that help us recognise when we are not. As Peter Drucker, seminal thinker in the world of business consultancy, said:
“Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around you.”
So what constitutes us being in a High Energy/Low Stress state? There are common themes, but the actual situations that will elicit this energy state in each of us are very personal. The key is to be one’s own barometer, to notice, and to be able to recognise and measure when and where we experience this positive energy. Is it when we are interacting with other people? Is it when we have time on our own? Do we get it from being creative? Is it being outside? Is it reading a book? Does it come from being immersed in some analytical data..? Wherever it comes from, if we take the time to notice when we are experiencing this positive High Energy/Low Stress energy, then we can proactively move towards situations that allow us to be in this state more often. Conversely, and no less importantly, we can also recognise when we are not there. Knowing our own barometer readings, and noticing when we have drifted away from plain-sailing waters into the dead calm of the Doldrums, or the perilously crashing waves of the storm, will help us to either plot a change in course, or, when the trajectory is out of our control, to batten down our hatches in readiness. Furthermore, as Leaders, we can be Lighthouses for the people with whom we interact: we can be on the lookout for the submerged obstacles, highlight paths of safe passage and act as beacons for those that sail alongside us.
*NRR = Notice, Respond, Repeat: The practice of deliberately noticing what is around us, reflecting, and then responding with intent. Ad infinitum.
