Alan Humphries - FED Consultant

One of the questions that leaders frequently ask me is: ‘How do you know if FED is working?’ And it’s a really good question that leaders across organisations seek to answer. Many of them choose questionnaires and employee surveys to get feedback on the shifts they hope are occurring. But there’s a more immediate way to find out what impact FED is having.

My rule of thumb answer is as follows. Look around your organisation and notice whether individuals and teams are developing. Are people having bigger conversations? Are you seeing people showing up differently? And then see if you can notice this energy starting to flow back up and through the organisation. In other words look for people impacting their bosses and the decisions that are taken. If this is starting to happen then you can be confident that FED is working.

In Future-Engage-Deliver we put a particular emphasis on the four energies and you can also look at the shifts that you and your people are making through this lens. The four energies are Intellectual, Emotional, Physical and Spirit and if you want to know if your people are applying FED then here are some characteristics to look for

• Using intellectual energy leaders and their teams start to solve business problems/issues in surprising and creative ways. People are confident in finding solutions to problems and ideas are welcomed.

• Using emotional energy leaders and their teams build bigger relationships, they look to engage people and find ways to value their colleagues. Straight speaking and robust dialogue are part of everyday conversations.

• Using physical energy leaders bring an extraordinary vitality and determination to what they are working on. New projects and initiatives start to take off in ways they hadn’t done previously and momentum is sustained

• Using spirit energy the mood is much more upbeat. There is a sense of shared purpose and a belief that what is going on will make a difference. People seem happier and more optimistic.

As part of your practice take some time this week to reflect on your own four energies and how you bring them to your leadership. And at the same time notice which energy your people bring to work. Can you and they be more flexible? Which energy, if you or they brought it more powerfully, would make the most difference to the projects and relationships on which you are working?

By Alan Humphries, FED consultant and coach