The Three Energies of Leadership: Understanding the Energetic Impact of How You Lead

The demand for leaders to develop soft skills has continued to increase. Today, emotional awareness plays a key role in a leader’s ability to advance, connect, and get effective team results. While this topic has been around since the 1990s, the role and place of emotions in business is still debated. While leaders “know” emotions matter, they still will often lean toward hard skills, logic, and performance metrics.

Mindsets that view emotions as weakness and elevate results over connection continue to widen the gap in a leader’s ability to embody and leverage emotional impact. Emotional currency drives ROI, increases satisfaction and joy at work, and fuels exceptional performance and results. Emotions are not a side issue; they are a force behind every key leadership decision and connection.  They increase creativity and provide a foundation for sustainability.

Leaders either leak or contribute energy. They generate clarity or add confusion.

Vulnerability isn’t about oversharing; it’s about energetic honesty. Energy shapes the emotional currency.  It can make deposits that build trust and stability or take withdrawals that create tension and fatigue.

There are three types of emotional energy leaders need to pay attention to.

#1: Emotional Energy (vibe): This is the most common way we think about energy, but it is still an area for growth. When we fail to be vulnerable, when we have ego and judgment, we contribute to creating unsafe spaces through our internal energy and vibe. While many people cannot articulate what feels off, they energetically feel it and sense the lack of connection and struggle to get in alignment because they feel an invisible wall. This is emotional energy. When leaders are self-aware and conscientious of their thoughts, feelings, judgments, and energy, they are better equipped to notice and therefore manage their energy in a way that doesn’t project, judge, blame, attack, shame, guilt, or subconsciously be condescending or better than others.

#2: Cognitive Energy (thinking): This area is about leading with focus and clarity versus sending mixed messages and contradictory signals. Sometimes we think of this as a hard skill, but our communication and messages create energy. What energy are we creating with our words? Do we do what we say we will do? Are we living in integrity? Do we walk the talk that we ask from our team?  Do we follow up? When we are unclear in our communication and messaging, we contribute to fog, overthinking, confusion, and spinning in the team. As a leader, you can reduce those pitfalls by ensuring your cognitive energy is coherent and sharp.

#3: Behavioral Energy (action): Last, this energy is how we act.  Behavior energy is still an energy because it is what we exhibit on the outside because of our internal emotions. Do we smile? Are we warm and welcoming?  Do we accidentally sneer and look away? Do we lean in with curiosity, or are we distracted by looking at our phone, waiting for them to finish talking? Do we express genuine care and concern, or are we looking for how to exit the conversation? Our actions send energetic messages as well.  The gaps in managing this will create unbalance, demotivation, pressure, and confusion.

All of these energies contribute to building trust, respect, rapport, commitment, understanding, and shared partnership.  They can also contribute to an invisible emotional disconnect that most people can feel but grapple to express what “it” is.  The result can be scapegoating on something that sounds reasonable. “I was just tired” or “It’s been a long day.” “I was just trying to think about what I needed to do, but I am fine.” “Oh, no, we are totally good; I got it.”  Be careful as these phrases are often excuses, deflections, denials, or flat-out lying to convince yourself you are good when really there is “something” off and it would be uncomfortable to acknowledge and uncover the energetic gap.

This is the emotional economy. When leaders can understand this economy and also their energetic impact, they are better able to make deposits and build reserves rather than quietly depleting them. (aka: be vulnerable)

This is where awareness becomes responsibility. When you understand how your energy shows up, you gain the ability to influence the emotional economy instead of reacting to it. You take responsibility for creating positive space rather than contributing to cloudy space.

Consider your energy and leadership. Does it add or take away? How does it add? How does it take away?

Consider the three areas of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral energy. Which area receives your strongest positive investment, and which area do you unintentionally send mixed or conflicting energy?

Our energy matters. There is an emotional economy at work and in life. When we recognize that emotions are the quiet economy shaping connection and trust, we can lead with the clarity, steadiness, and emotional congruence that create trust, partnership, and results.

Build your EI (emotional intelligence). It is all connected to emotions and energy.