VQ Expanded

In much of my work, I have discussed the importance of Psychophysiology to Leadership Success.

One of the most common problems I see Leaders have is not their skills, whether it is Leadership Skills, EQ, or even IQ.

Rather, it boils down to numerous issues in their Psychophysiology that undermine all of their Potential, often without them realizing it.

There are ways to measure how effectively our Psychophysiology is working, which I have called the Vitality Quotient or VQ.

Our VQ is an essential aspect of our Success as Leaders.

Further, as Leaders, we can also direct this knowledge around VQ in the Process of Designing a Regenerative Legacy.

I have written a number of articles around the Idea of why Businesses and Leaders need to Focus on Designing a Regenerative Legacy.

But let's dive into this further.

When looking at VQ, there are 4 Dimensions that we need to really look at if we are going to build Businesses that will Redefine the Future.

The first is the easiest for us to do which is at the Individual level.

Each of us has many different things we do in our lives which can directly impact our VQ.

What is important here is that, as Leaders you need 2 things from a Psychophysiological perspective to Succeed.

The ability to handle higher levels of Stress, and Energy (Mg-ATP).

No matter how profitable you are, no matter how great of a people-person you are, and no matter how smart you are - if you can't handle the Stress and you don't have enough Energy (Mg-ATP) then you will lose.

It's that simple.

Sometimes the process is fast, like an airplane crashing into the ground.

Other times it is a long and brutally painful process of death by a thousand papercuts as we are seeing with many of the Leaders of the largest companies currently.

The other challenge here is that usually these fuel each other towards worse Results - Low Energy leads to a Lower Stress Threshold, which leads to Higher Stress, which leads to Less Energy.

Until eventual Implosion.

So, Leaders need to Focus on their own VQ if they want to Succeed.

However, there is a difference between Success and Flourishing.

Success can be obtained alone, and generally, it is short-lived.

It is common to see Successful People fade away or combust, sometimes even live in front of the entire world to see.

However, Flourishing you cannot do alone.

All Flourishing is Mutual.

This brings us to the second dimension - the Team Level.

If you are Succeeding as a Leader, but the Individuals on your Team is not Succeeding, then you are not Flourishing.

You're on a one-way trip to extreme Pain, Dis-Stress, Burnout, and things like Active Disengagement, Quiet Quitting, and low Productivity Levels.

However, the Team is not to be blamed for this.

It is the role of the Leader to figure out how best to utilize their Team, and if they fail to do that, only the Leader is to be blamed.

The best way to get your Team to be united with you and to avoid all of the Problems above (and more) is to Improve the Team VQ.

With a High Team VQ, you have the opportunity to get to the highest functioning Team possible - A Team in Group Flow.

Every Superstar Team in history has done so through Group Flow, but it isn't possible when you have a Team with low VQ, or worse at the lowest point in Burnout.

Since most people are in Burnout (80% of People), it is fair to say that most Teams are underperforming dramatically, and most policies (such as the Return-To-Office Mandates) will only make things worse.

We have actually started to see this as most of the companies who have made these demands to Return-To-Office are either seeing lower Productivity, or outright Rebellion from their Employees.

If you don't fix Team VQ, you will only see these problems increase.

However, it is not enough to just improve Team VQ either.

You must go to the next dimension - Organizaitonal VQ.

I have seen plenty of businesses where there was a "Rockstar Team", and they had other Teams that didn't perform.

Funny enough, I have often seen that the "Rockstar Team" can be the "reason" other Teams struggle to perform.

All Flourishing is Mutual.

If your Organization has any Teams that are Struggling, then the overall Organizational VQ is low.

This is where you begin to see things like Silos and policies that don't make sense, infighting, and worse.

If your Organization is at war with itself, you will lose.

Yet, today we see so many Organizations that are tearing themselves apart.

This is also a Leadership Problem.

Leaders are responsible for bringing their Organizations together.

If you want to Organization to Succeed, you must increase the Organizational VQ.

However, there is still one more dimension you must look at.

The External VQ.

This comes down to mainly 3 groups, though some companies have a 4th.

• Suppliers
• Customers
• The World
• Sometimes Shareholders

All of these are intricately linked.

All Flourishing is Mutual.

When any of these are not Flourishing, especially when they aren't BECAUSE of your Organization, you cannot Flourish either.

You need to look no further than the increasing issue of Piracy in the Streaming Industry.

If your Customers aren't Flourishing, they will eventually stop using your Product.

If your Suppliers aren't Flourishing, they will eventually stop supplying you.

If your Shareholders aren't Flourishing, they will take their Money Back.

If the World gets worse, you won't have any Business to worry about.

Each of these is linked, and if the VQ goes down, the Organization cannot survive.

However, if you are a Smart Leader, you can use this concept to Improve things for everyone Involved.

Funding to improve the world even at as low as 1% of profits has been shown to increase sales by 15%, but with this, if you improve the "right" parts of the World, you can also improve things for your Suppliers.

Instead of giving without understanding your Impact, you can Intentionally Design how you Improve things to your Benefit.

As things Improve for Suppliers, you can Improve your own Products and Services.

As this occurs, you can Improve things for your Customers.

As Life Improves for Customers, they are more likely to spend MORE money with you.

If you have Shareholders, these things make them happy and more likely to Invest More.

Which all contributes back into itself in a Virtuous Circle.

This is why VQ is such an Important part of Business Success.

If the VQ is low, it creates a Disasterous Circle where more Chaos, Mayhem, and Losses occur more and more quickly until the entire system Collapses.

However, as all of these work together, and VQ Improves, then the Virtuous Circle solidifies and benefits everyone involved.