ISSUE 89

25 JUNE 2026 | READ ONLINE​

Hi Reader,

This week, I taught a leadership program over two consecutive evenings. Four in the afternoon until ten at night, twice over. And I'll confess, I felt a bit tired.

You know the feeling. The kind of tired where you are bargaining with yourself about how much you actually have to give (plus my Oura ring was signaling the same).

So I made a decision before I started. I was going to bring energy into that room, whether I felt it or not. Being present, warm, and fully there for the people who had handed me six hours of their valuable time.

Here is what I did not expect.

By ten o'clock on the second night, I was not more drained. I was more alive than when I walked in.

That puzzled me enough to go looking. And the research on this turns out to be some of the most interesting work happening in leadership right now.

A recent systematic review, along with a wave of newer studies from Kim Cameron and Vicki Cabrera, points to one quality as the strongest predictor of a leader's success. It is the energy a leader carries into a room. That single thing sits above charisma, above intellect, above influence. Their recent work suggests this kind of positive energy is roughly three times as impactful at moving people as sharing information and influence.

Researchers borrow a word from botany for it. The heliotropic effect. Plants turn toward the light and grow in its direction because light is what keeps them alive. People do the same with energy. We lean toward whoever in the room is carrying it. I think about this every morning I am out in the garden, watching everything quietly bend toward the sun. A room full of people does exactly the same thing, and as the person standing at the front, you are either the light or you are not.

But here is the part that finally explained my puzzle, and it is the part I most want you to take with you.

Most of our energy runs down when we spend it. Run hard, and you need to recover. This one kind of energy works the other way around. The more of it you give, the more of it you have. Bring genuine warmth and presence to a group, and it circulates, comes back to you, and leaves you fuller than you started. That is why I closed my laptop at ten at night with more in the tank than I had at four.

People can feel the difference, too. The energy that renews you is the kind that comes from showing up as yourself, on purpose, even on a tired night.

So that was my week. Two long nights, a tired start each time, and a reminder that the energy you bring into a room is a choice you get to make. It is contagious. And strangely, it is the one resource that grows the more you spend it.

Two Options for This Week

Option A: Be the thermostat. Pick the one meeting this week you are most tempted to phone in. Walk in and decide to set the room temperature instead of absorbing it. Bring the warmth on the day you least feel like it, and watch what it does to the room, and to you.

Option B: Spend your energy where it compounds. Choose one person and have the kind of conversation that leaves them more alive than you found them. Pay attention afterward. You will almost certainly walk away with more energy than you went in with.

I am taking Option A into a packed week, starting with the meetings I would normally try to coast through.

Tell me, which one will you take?

Quick Links

• Find My Book: Clarity in Chaos. Lead with Purpose in Disruptive Times.​
• Subscribe to my podcast with Andreza Araujo, the Headline Podcast.
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.