Finding The Right Rhythms In Leadership

All of Life has different Rhythms that exist.

As Leaders, it is important to understand what these Rhythms are.

We are good at understanding some of them in the world of Business.

For instance, Quarters, Seasons, and Years.

We often Focus on these.

Are we having a good Quarter?

Is this a High or Low Season for the Business?

Are we on track to hit our Goals for the Year?

These are good things to be tracking and be aware of, but solely Focusing on them can become detrimental.

Why is this?

They are mainly Outcome Focused Rhythms.

If you understand Goal Setting, you will also Understand why these Outcome Focused Rhythms are Problematic.

When you only Focus on the Outcome, you can easily miss how you "get" to the Outcome.

This is why we are seeing so many Business Leaders talk about "Productivity" without actually "getting any Productivity out of their Teams.

The way these Business Leaders look at "Productivity" is purely Focused on Outcomes, often the wrong Outcomes if we're going to be honest, instead of the Process to attain those Outcomes.

So for Instance, we have seen Business Leaders make a (Poor) Decision to track the Outcome of Time In the Office.

As if "Time-In-Office" produces Results, which we have seen OBVIOUSLY doesn't.

With the extremely high levels of Burnout, Disengagement, Active Disengagement, and Quiet Quitting we know for a fact it's a poor Outcome to track.

Especially when thinking about the Rhythms of Weeks, Months, Quarters, and Years.

So, we understand that we have to look at the Process Rhythms instead of the Outcome Rhythms.

But what are those Process Rhythms?

One of the first to look at is HRV (Heart Rate Variability) Rhythms, and specifically Coherence.

See, Coherence is a fantastic measure of Emotional Intelligence.

If you follow much of the Business Dialogue, you'll know that many experts are saying that a High Emotional Intelligence will be important in the coming years.

It is True, but the fastest way to Build your Emotional Intelligence is through Improving your VQ, which HRV Coherence is one aspect of.

See, if you can Improve your HRV Coherence Rhythms, there are a couple of Outcomes you can attain from it.

Of course, there is the classic improved overall Health which is great.

However, more importantly, two other aspects come with this.

The first is that it Reduces Dis-Stress.

Part of why this is Important is because Dis-Stress blocks Flow States, which I'll get more into later.

The other important aspect is that improved HRV Coherence can both improve EQ directly and can also improve Team Cohesion.

See, our Hearts create Electromagnetic waves that interact with other people's Hearts, part of Human Neurocardiology.

When we experience different Emotions, it produces different types of waves.

Whatever waves you produce can Impact those around you, just as their waves can Impact you.

So, say your entire Team is in a state of Burnout, as 80% of Employees are today - that creates a Dis-Stress form of a wave that can pull YOU into Dis-Stress.

Or, if you Improve your HRV Coherence, you can do the opposite - pull yourself and your Team OUT of Dis-Stress.

When people are out of Dis-Stress, our Brains literally think differently, and this directly improves Emotional Intelligence.

However, this isn't the only important Rhythm that is Important to understand as a Leader.

We should also understand both Circadian and Ultradian Rhythms.

See, our bodies function best by following Circadian and Ultradian Rhythms throughout the day.

Circadian is based on the time from Sunrise to Sunset.

Our Bodies "should" naturally start to get ready for the day with the rising of the Sun, and naturally prepare for rest with the Sunset.

When we mess with this, we can detrimentally Impact Energy (Mg-ATP) Production in our Bodies.

This means that if we have our Employees working late into the Evening, when their Bodies are attempting to prepare for Rest, we are negatively Impacting their Energy Production.

In the short term, it can be amended, but the Problem in today's world is that this is a COMMON occurrence.

So, by constantly pushing Employees to work later and later, we are actively preventing them from producing Energy (Mg-ATP).

Effectively, as a Leader, you are actively making your Team worse, unable to make the Energy (Mg-ATP) needed to do their work well.

This also ties into the Ultradian Rhythm.

Humans work best with periods of working from 50-90 minutes straight, followed by periods of 10-30 minutes in Active Recovery.

The Longer we push people to work without that Active Recovery, the progressively worse they become at their work.

So, if you are having your employees sit at their desks for 8-12 hours straight, you are Creating a HORRIBLE Environment for Productivity.

Progressively, the Longer they do not Recover, the less and less they can Accomplish.

It is also NOT the Employees' fault - this is a part of being Human and it is solely the Leader's fault for not creating an Environment designed for Human Beings.

We still have one more Important Rhythm that Leaders should understand.

That is Flow Rhythms.

There is something known as the Flow Cycle that is necessary to understand for the highest levels of Human Productivity, Creativity, Innovation, Problem Solving, and ultimately Happiness.

The Rhythm goes like this - Struggle, Release, Flow, Recovery.

Struggle is very easy for us to do, in today's world, we rarely avoid it.

Where many people Struggle though is in the Release phase.

See, most People either have too much Dis-Stress, not enough Energy (Mg-ATP) or are not having their Skills Utilized Effectively to actually "Release" into Flow States.

When Humans have too much Stress, such as when experiencing Burnout, they become blocked from Flow.

When Humans don't have enough Energy (Mg-ATP), they physically can't get to Flow States.

When Humans are not having their Skills Utilized Effectively, it generally creates Boredom AND Stress which both are not conducive to getting into Flow States.

This is only made worse when Employees do not properly Recover, often also caused by the current Work Environment.

Most of these are Caused by the current Work Environment, and being Focused only on Results Rhythms is a major part of the Reason.

As Leaders, if we want to have an Effective Workforce, we need to learn to work "with" these Process Rhythms that are a Natural Aspect of being Human.

The longer we ignore them, the Worse our Results are going to be.

We also cannot rely on Technology to be our Saviors because the Technology we are seeing today - AI, VR, and More - is not Designed to get us the Results we need.

These Technologies are not Effective at true Emotional Intelligence, Innovation, or Creativity which are NEEDED according to all the Futurists.

The only way to Achieve these necessary components to Business Success is to work "with" what makes us Humans.

We must work "with" these Process Rhythms.

The best way to accomplish this is to Design a Regenerative Legacy.