Understanding these energy levels and why you respond to specific triggers is essential to becoming a Peak Performance Leader and building your team.
It is important to remember your energy can fluctuate from minute to minute depending on the situation. One minute you’re on a high because the patient made a significant change in their function. Next minute your staff member catches you in between patients and asks for more time off. You’re on the PT rollercoaster…
How Can Energy Help or Hinder our Success?
…By understanding that there are 2 types: Anabolic & Catabolic. A catabolic state is driven by stress and an anabolic state is fed by engagement. I’ll now break down each of the 7 levels and show you how these come into play.
Level 1 Energy: Catabolic
Level 1 Energy is Characterized By The Following:
•Exhibit guilt, victim mentality, poor me
•Low energy
•Avoid situations that are difficult
•Trouble making decisions: paralysis by analysis
•Focus on the problems
Scenario: Staff member tells you “I didn’t do the task because it wasn’t my responsibility and decided to leave it alone”.
PT asks for PTO during a time when others are off. You explain that clinic needs coverage. They accuse you of not wanting them to have time off.
Level 2 Energy: Catabolic
Level 2 Energy is Characterized By The Following:
•Anger, conflict, and defiance
•View things as right or wrong
•Resistance, frustration
•Blame: “I didn’t do it”
•Motivation occurs through aggression or fear
Because PT’s are control freaks and want to do it our way, we might not trust others to do things that we can delegate. “I’ll just do it!”
Many leaders find themselves in Level 2 – competing with others is often a key goal. (more prevalent in larger groups)
If you are having trouble getting your point across, frustration is likely a symptom.
Level 3 Energy: Anabolic
Level 3 Energy is Characterized By The Following:
•Take responsibility for your thoughts, emotions, and actions
•Focus is on winning and achieving goals meeting your agenda
•Core thought: “ I want to win”
•Good at rationalizing and sometimes settle for “ good enough”
As a leader of your tribe, you might rationalize the action by a staff member in a way that makes you feel better about yourself and others.
This rationalization is a coping mechanism for stress.
Example: “Oh its okay that you didn’t meet your numbers” When in reality it isn’t OK. You might be feeling a bit challenged by the fact that you will need to confront this staff member. It feels stressful.”
Level 4 energy: Anabolic
Level 4 Energy is Characterized By The Following:
•Most health care professionals function here: nurturing
•You’re inspired and inspire those around you
•Foster collaboration, teamwork, and loyalty
•You don’t want to burden others, so you take on the tasks yourself
•You generally want to fix things for others
As a leader you want your staff to like you and get along. So you help them get their tasks done, so they will like you and feel comfortable in the clinic.
When you take these extra tasks on and don’t delegate your energy begins to drop and your focus goes away.
As a result of your efforts your less likely to push your staff members into zones where they can perform. They are left in “their comfort zone”
Level 5 Energy: Anabolic
Level 5 Energy is Characterized By The Following:
•You see possibilities, opportunities, and solutions everywhere
•You’re highly conscious and aware of things around you
•You’re less judgmental in this level- more accepting
•You’re continuously scanning the market for opportunities
•You’re not afraid of failure when you tackle something
As a leader, this high level of positive energy is hard to maintain when you are met with adverse or challenging situations. You’re going along, leads are arriving, converting to referrals, then they stop or fall off. The wind is taken out of your sail.
Now what? This is a great opportunity to learn. Some of the best results come when this happens if your mindset is productive. Try asking “ why did this happen?”, “ what does it mean?”
Level 6 Energy: Anabolic
Level 6 Energy is Characterized By The Following:
•Intuition is the determining feature
•Visionaries and leaders function here when creating and innovating
•You’re extremely engaged during conversations
•You’re empathetic
•You bring tremendous power into your profession and life
When engaging with patients, in the front or back, you are listening with 100% engagement. “Focus on Them” – is most important. You’re creating new and different ways to explore business opportunities. Your meeting with a new PT candidate and something in your “gut” gives you the sense to be aware.
Level 7 Energy: Anabolic (Highest Level)
Level 7 Energy is Characterized By The Following:
•Fearlessness, nonjudgement
•People who function at this level typically are geniuses and create brilliant ideas
This level is about creating ideas and high powered solutions that you are very passionate about. Nothing really gets in the way.
Where Is Your Energy Level Most Days?
You can probably identify where your energy level is hovering on a daily basis. The goal is to constantly move your energy level up toward level 7, understanding that you will have highs and lows.
