Energize on the job to reach full potential

By Fiona Anderson, Vancouver Sun, February 3, 2010
Extract: VANCOUVER — Work-life balance — the idea that work drains our energy and we recharge after hours — isn't true, a Vancouver Board of Trade breakfast gathering was told Wednesday.

What really happens is that some things drain us, whether at home or at work, and other things energize us, Johanne Lavoie, a senior expert at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company said at the event, organized by the board's Women's Leadership Circle.

...For example, Lavoie is good at preparing spread sheets, a skill she spent time learning and mastering. But when she completes one, she's exhausted. On the other hand, she never felt good at talking to crowds. Yet given the chance she found doing that pumped her up. So she has learned to shift her focus, handing off the spreadsheet work to a colleague and taking on the talking gigs. In the end she has more energy to devote to work.

The beauty is that while something may be draining on you, it may be energizing to someone else, Lavoie said. So there is room to trade a draining task for an energizing one.

... The research results have been published in a book, How Remarkable Women Lead, written by Susie Cranston, who also took part in the Vancouver Board of Trade event.
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