Usually I’m dog-tired at the end of a ride this long, but this time it was simpler than I had expected. Every half mile, we took turns drafting one another, each getting a chance to experience that sweet spot of cycling. It’s there that you draw on the force of the cyclist in front of you and use 40 percent less energy to get the same results. When drafting like this, yes, you’re still pedaling; your body is still at work. But at the same time, you’re able to rest from the full-exertion grind that can quickly wear you out. This rest gives your muscles a chance to recover– and to maintain energy reserves over the long haul.

In leadership, drafting is called strategic disengagement, that rare skill of knowing when to take a step away from an action or situation. This break allows you to regain your energy so that, ultimately, you can give it your all.

The value of this skill was reinforced during a daylong energy management workshop I facilitated. I asked each participating leader to assess if he or she was experiencing a personal energy crisis (so named by Tony Schwartz, co-author of The Power of Full Engagement). Most of us are veterans of this kind of crisis, suffering a severe lack of verve at some point in our lives. You know it’s a personal energy crisis when:

• Your thinking is persistently fuzzy
• Your emotions are running too high or too low
• Your stamina peters out before a project is finished, or
• The meaning in life and work has deserted you

The sad fact is that living in an energy deficit can become such a normal state that we no longer know what it feels like to thrive. Many of the leaders in our workshop were nearing burnout (over-challenged) or rustout (under-challenged), and they lacked strong enough energy management skills to handle it. I told them my cycling story and we discussed the benefits of drafting– or disengaging in order to re-engage again with replenished energy reserves. Most of these leaders agreed that if they could choose just one skill to renew their vitality, strategic disengagement would be it.

Strategically disengaging means establishing habits which help you intentionally recuperate– mind, body and spirit– over the course of your day (and your life). On a day-to-day basis, this can be done through the routine acts that give you energy, such as eating well, exercising, practicing good sleep hygiene, or using your larger mission to guide how you spend your time. Even those actions which are fewer and further between have their role: getting a monthly massage, taking a bi-yearly retreat completely away from email, or engaging in an altruistic, life-giving project within your community.

When I hopped off the bike after our ride, I can’t say that I wanted to immediately do 40 miles again. But I definitely could have done 39 I know it’s counter-intuitive, but for the long haul, sometimes a little strategic disengagement is the only way to engage.

Dear Readers – Starting September 1st my business partner, Nina Peterson, will be disengaging from Wisdom Works. She will no longer be a partner although she’ll continue to deliver work to our clients when projects call for her capabilities. She’s charting a new path for her work— opening up to what makes her heart sing now— an expanded focus on solutions for business growth (and maybe mission work in Africa sometime down the road!). I could not be happier for her. For almost nine years, we’ve led Wisdom Works together; I am grateful for all of the ways she engaged her talents and wisdom to support the success of our clients, our team, and our firm. Happy drafting, Nina!

Photo by joiseyshowaa

There have long been tools and resources for tracking and journaling the various details of our health, but until recently these were the domain of experts like personal trainers and coaches. Welcome to the era of the iPhone and other hi-tech, affordable ways to manage your vitality. Here are four ways that iPhone apps can monitor and analyze key factors for your daily energy:

1. Track your heart rate
2. Catch your breath
3. Record your workout details
4. Monitor your diet and calories

To deepen your appreciation of such technology, take a break and try observing things immediately around you. Right now, wherever you are, do a 360-degree scan of your environment. As if you were seeing things for the first time, drink in everything you can with your eyes. Here’s the trick: try to withhold judgment.

I’ve got some fairly obvious filters here (yes, I’ve spent a few decades focused on leaders’ health and wellness). No doubt I’m jumping to some judgments about what I see. It’s tough to shut that off completely, even more so when turning our focus inward. When we can’t shut off that inner judge, our inner observations might sound like this:

See how snap judgments catapult us past simple observation and into the realm of presumption? This little observation break was supposed to be just data collection, simply taking it all in. But so often as leaders, before we’ve taken it all in, we’re readying ourselves for action (or vapor-locking in frustration). I’ve discovered that you’ll find your self-observation is more energizing if you can take these two steps: 1) truly pause and 2) avoid judgment. Start with questions like:

To answer honestly and without judgment takes practice— or the mind of a robot. Which is the idea behind those iPhone apps: they are systematic about gathering data, thus providing us objective tools for making better decisions. And when those decisions affect how we manage, expend, and cultivate our energy, they start to feel pretty important, right?

Of course you don’t need an iPhone for this sort of data collection—it’s just an easy alternative to paper journals, personal trainers, and the like. Whatever your technique of observation and tracking, there is one big reward toward your wellbeing. Over time you’ll see a pattern emerge: your unique daily energy signature.

When you can see where your energy rises and crashes, the question is unavoidable: Is this pattern producing the results I want? If you answer “no,” then it’s time to explore options for creating better energy balance, such as eating for energy, taking a break every 90 minutes in your workday, or doing something creative and fun. Try it: fit your life into a little iPhone screen and see if that gives you a little more room to breathe.

Photo by JD Hancock

I was pondering these very questions last week while writing this entry from my sister’s bedroom. We sat together on her queen-sized bed. It was an uncharacteristically cool day in May, so we had the striped, pearl-colored comforter scrunched up to our necks to stay warm. Magazines and pill bottles were scattered about the room while a home improvement show droned on the television. Kim was alternating her attention between checking Facebook, talking with me, and dozing off. The pain pills she was taking several times a day really knocked her out.

You see, my sister had been combating lupus for at least a dozen years. Besides her daily physical discomfort—her joints, digestive track, lungs, and muscles in relentless pain—the disease attacked one of her body’s organ systems about every other year. She’d been through brain seizures, congestive heart issues, and renal problems. A few weeks ago it was respiratory failure. Honestly, that time I thought we’d lost her for good. Amazingly, she reemerged from the hospital, not as strong as before, but still here. Still with us. Still engaging in the stuff of life with a sense of wellbeing no matter how incapacitated she had become.

I had always been in awe of Kim’s ability to participate in life, even when she was feeling her worst. Given her gift for staying upbeat in the midst of suffering, she seemed to have some essential wisdom that many of us chase our whole lives. So sitting there together beneath that comforter, I decided to pick her brain on the wisdom of wellbeing. Here’s a peek at our conversation.

Dr. Martin Seligman, author of Flourish: A Visionary Understanding of Happiness and Wellbeing, would agree with Kim’s words. He claims that wellbeing as a resource is available to us always; we need not merely call on it during our times of greatest suffering. Tapping into the wisdom of wellbeing—like my sister learned to do so well—certainly helps us manage difficulty, but also helps us prevent illness and stress.

This is good news for us as leaders. One of our many roles is to show up well, fully engaged, and at our best. We must be ready and able to foster a work environment where others can thrive. But we’re human too, dealing with the latest crisis (or illness) as much as the next person. When we as leaders tap into the greater wisdom of wellbeing that worked in and through my sister, we can flourish as she did.

[Kim passed away last night at age 45. Her lifelong upbeat outlook continued through a 12-year battle with lupus. She touched many of us through her "secret mission of helping others" and we will all dearly miss her.]

Laptop photo by Johan Larsson