How the Energy Leadership™ Index Can Transform Your Leadership Style
Effective leadership isn’t just about managing tasks or delivering results. It’s about understanding yourself, your impact on others, and the energy you bring to every situation. As an executive coach and Energy Leadership™ Index (ELI) Master Practitioner, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful the right tools can be in helping leaders elevate their performance. Two of the most transformative tools available to executives are the Energy Leadership™ Index (ELI) Assessment and the ELI 360 Assessment.
These tools go beyond traditional leadership assessments, providing deep insights into how leaders show up energetically, both in day-to-day operations and under stress. Let’s dive into how these assessments can help you unlock your leadership potential and drive sustainable growth in your organization.
What is the Energy Leadership™ Index (ELI) Assessment?
The Energy Leadership™ Index (ELI) Assessment is a unique tool that measures your energetic response to various situations. Unlike other assessments that focus on personality traits or behavioral tendencies, the ELI focuses on consciousness—the level of energy you bring to your interactions, decisions, and leadership style. This is important because energy impacts how you perceive challenges, communicate with your team, and lead your organization.
The ELI identifies seven distinct levels of energy, ranging from catabolic (draining, destructive energy) to anabolic (constructive, healing energy). These levels reflect how you respond to stress and how you approach your leadership role. The assessment highlights where you typically operate energetically, while also showing where you may default to lower energy levels under pressure.
The Seven Levels of Energy: A Brief Overview
Level 1: Victim mentality, characterized by feelings of helplessness or frustration.
Level 2: Conflict-driven, where anger or defiance may dominate.
Level 3: Rationalization and coping, marked by taking responsibility but often settling for less.
Level 4: Compassion and service to others, with a focus on helping and supporting.
Level 5: Opportunity-focused, seeing challenges as learning experiences and partnerships.
Level 6: Synthesis, where intuition and collaboration thrive, resulting in shared success.
Level 7: Complete synergy, where everything is seen as interconnected and flowing effortlessly.
Each level offers distinct advantages and challenges. Leaders who can shift their energy levels consciously, depending on the situation, are able to inspire greater creativity, innovation, and resilience in their teams.
The Benefits of the ELI for Executives
For executives, the ELI can be a game-changer. Here’s how:
Heightened Self-Awareness: The ELI sheds light on how you naturally respond to stress, conflict, and everyday decision-making. This self-awareness allows you to understand not just what you do as a leader, but how you show up energetically.
Improved Decision-Making: By recognizing when you’re operating from a lower energy level, you can shift to a more anabolic state, where you’re more open, creative, and solution-oriented.
Enhanced Communication: The ELI helps you understand how your energy influences the way you communicate with others. This can lead to more effective conversations, improved collaboration, and stronger relationships with your team.
Stress Management: When you understand how your energy shifts under stress, you’re better equipped to manage that stress, avoiding burnout and fostering a more sustainable leadership style.
Stronger Leadership Presence: Leaders who consistently operate from higher energy levels are seen as more inspiring, engaging, and visionary. The ELI helps you cultivate this presence by enabling conscious energy shifts.
What is the Energy Leadership™ 360 Assessment?
The Energy Leadership™ 360 Assessment builds on the ELI by adding a 360-degree feedback component. While the ELI focuses on your self-assessment, the ELI 360 allows you to gather feedback from peers, direct reports, and supervisors. This comprehensive view provides insights into how others perceive your leadership energy, offering a well-rounded perspective on your strengths and areas for growth.
This multi-dimensional feedback is crucial because it highlights any blind spots you might have—areas where your energy levels are having a greater impact on others than you realize. The ELI 360 complements the self-awareness you gain from the ELI, enabling you to align your internal perception with external reality.
The Benefits of the ELI 360 for Executives
Holistic Insight: The ELI 360 offers a full picture of how you show up as a leader, not just from your own perspective but through the eyes of others. This insight helps you see where your energy is resonating positively with your team and where shifts might be needed.
Identifying Blind Spots: Sometimes, the energy you think you’re projecting may not align with how others experience you. The ELI 360 helps you pinpoint these blind spots, giving you the opportunity to address them and lead more effectively.
Strengthening Relationships: With feedback from your team, you can better understand how your leadership style impacts their performance and engagement. This allows you to make adjustments that foster deeper trust and collaboration.
Actionable Feedback: The ELI 360 doesn’t just provide data; it offers clear, actionable insights that you can use to improve your leadership approach. Whether it’s enhancing communication or managing stress differently, the feedback is designed to help you grow.
Increased Accountability: Knowing that others are observing and providing feedback on your energy creates a heightened sense of accountability. This ensures that you’re consistently working toward being the best leader you can be.
Why Energy Leadership Matters in Executive Roles
Leadership isn’t just about what you do—it’s about how you do it. In executive roles, the energy you bring to your organization influences everything from team morale to decision-making to overall company culture. Leaders who operate from higher energy levels inspire their teams to think creatively, approach challenges with optimism, and collaborate more effectively.
The Energy Leadership™ Index Assessment and ELI 360 offer a path to unlocking your full leadership potential. By becoming more aware of how you show up energetically, you can make conscious shifts that lead to more impactful leadership, greater job satisfaction, and better outcomes for your organization.
Ready to Unlock Your Leadership Potential?
If you’re ready to take your leadership to the next level, the Energy Leadership™ Index and ELI 360 assessments provide the insights you need to make lasting change. As an ELI Master Practitioner, I’m here to guide you through the process, helping you understand your energy and leverage it for greater success.
Reach out today to learn more about how these assessments can transform your leadership and your organization.
Note: Core Energy Coaching and the Energy Leadership Assessment were created by Bruce Schneider, Ph.D., M.C.C., and is taught and certified through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, an International Coaching Federation (ICF)-accredited training program. This summary contains my interpretation of their copyrighted work.
