At 5 a.m. Sunday morning Miriam would get up long before her alarm and take a long walk around the lake. By 7 a.m. she would be dressed and ready to enjoy the rest of her day. She loved her free days. There was so much she wanted to do and did do on them. Granted, she didn't have much time these days. She was swamped at work and putting in nearly around the clock hours, again. But, what time she had, she used to the fullest.

Come Monday morning, her zest for life would disappear. Getting out of bed took a great effort. She dreaded the day ahead. While she accomplished a lot in the course of the day and her energy returned once at her desk, the early mornings were awful. It seemed to take more energy for her to get ready  and into work than it took to do the Due Diligence process she was in the midst of performing.

What was so odd for Miriam was that she used to love coming to work.  Working on these projects used to be just as renewing and energizing (or even more so than her free time). She began to wonder what happened.

As she explored, she realized that she felt two issues at hand. One was hat she felt very disconnected from the merger process. She wanted to be more involved in the implementation, in enabling the change process and integration, not just the analysis beforehand.

Secondly, she had lost touch with her deeper motivation. She loved to experience success. Working on mergers used to be exciting. She felt that she was doing adding value to the company. As time passed and she could see the impact of the mergers, she began to question the value.  Sure, there was a financial payback, but walking through the merged companies a year after the merger was often like walking through a robotics factory. People seemed to be disengaged, their spirits down and she was sure, that productivity, service and output were all effected as well.

The more she thought about what was happening, she realized that she had to align her work with her values somehow. She was sure that the merger strategy that she had undertaken was the best way for her company to grow. So, change was not about creating a new strategy, but rather, how she went about implementing the strategy.  As Miriam looked at what she wanted to accomplish, her vision became clearer. She wanted to enable healthy mergers for both her company and the integration of employees.

Once she was clear about the outcome she wanted and felt her values realigned with her work, her energy and zest for work returned. She was ready to take action, involve her team, a cross-section of stakeholders and a small group of PMI consultants to design a new implementation strategy.

When is your energy low or when do you feel resistant in starting a task? How does the action at hand support your values? Where is there conflict? What changes do you need to make to realign your values and your work? What can you do to enable this to happen? Who can you involve in the process?  

Franziska is a shoot from the hip leader. She has an excellent ability to see a situation for what it is and quickly define what needs to be done next. For years, she ran the company making decisions and delegating the responsibilities for carrying them out to others. Most management theories would say that she is an effective leader.  Then, why was sitting in my office, frustrated that she just lost her second COO in 14 months?   To add insult to injury, in spite of their fabulous employee benefit program, ergonometric workplace and flexible working hours, the Employee Engagement Survey* they conducted showed there were fewer than 12% of their staff that were fully engaged. When she thought about it, she felt like she was part of the majority--disengaged. She was tired of all the responsibility resting on her shoulders. She wanted collaborators, not just folks to whom she could delegate.

 Eight weeks later, Franziska held her first Future Search Conference: "Our Company as an Innovation Leader in 2013". The 62 attendees developed a shared vision together and a strategy to bring it to reality in 3 intense days. What was most remarkable was the entire company's energy was heightened in the days immediately following the conference. As they continued to further develop and implement their plans in a top-down/bottom-up approach whole organization was involved and seemed to buzz with life  They no longer needed an engagement survey to know that the organization was engaged. They could see it, hear it and feel it nearly everywhere.

Franziska,  made some other changes in her life, too.  She came home after the Future Search Conference and sat down with her family. Instead of telling them how she wanted to spend the weekend, she asked them what they wanted to do. Together they planned their time together and even planned for a future holiday. It felt strange at first, but she found that she thoroughly enjoyed being a contributor and partner, rather than holding all the responsibility. 

 The new developments in her company seemed to flow. Innovations showed up in all aspects from customer service to product development. Future Search became an annual strategy and planning process to which those involved looked forward. What was most significant, her love of leadership returned in a new, far more effective way. 

*The Towers Perrin 2007 Global Workforce Study, the largest polling study on the global workforce with responses from almost 90,000 respondents in 18 countries, 50 global companies, divided employees into four categories, based on their level of engagement. They found that globally, 21% were found to be "fully engaged", 41% "partially engaged", 30% "partially disengaged" and 8% "fully disengaged". (see  www.towersperrin.com/gws). 

Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas by Alberto Phd Villoldo 

Quiet uninterrupted space
Roam the quietest place you can find for 5 or 10 minutes. Focus on unusual scenes   as you wonder... look for hidden beauty. As you notice something beautiful or unusual, allow the feelings of wonder and appreciation to fill your body. Value these feelings and contemplate them as you head back to whatever you choose to do next.

Sit or stand comfortably. Hold your hands together, fingertips touching and palms spread slightly apart forming a small triangle. Bring your hands close to our heart in this position. Focus your attention, any stress or tension to move through your hands and out your fingertip. (3- 5 minutes)

 "In the end, the proof of any leader's decisions is in their outcomes."

Samuel J. Palmisano  froom arecent study by IBM  (www.ibm.com/enterpriseofthefuture)