What is your Relational Energy

Musings 1 Minute

We have all experienced it, at times without having the words to describe it.

👁️‍🗨️ Experience 1: You present an idea to your manager. He listens, encourages you, and adds thoughtful suggestions. You walk out motivated and ready to do more.

👁️‍🗨️ Experience 2: In a cross functional team meeting, you suggest an idea. Several members in the team roll their eyes and shoot down your idea even without listening —suddenly, your energy crashes.

👁️‍🗨️ Experience 3: You meet a friend for coffee. You hadn’t slept the night before and are feeling exhausted. Yet, her laughter, empathy, and positivity leave you feeling lighter.

These moments reveal a hidden but powerful force at play: RELATIONAL ENERGY 🌟

The concept was formally defined by Bradley Owens, Wayne Baker, Donald Sumpter and Kim Cameron in 2016 in their landmark study on workplace relationships.

They describe relational energy as: “a heightened level of psychological resourcefulness generated from interpersonal interaction that enhances one’s capacity to do work.”

In simple terms, it’s the boost—or the drain—you feel after engaging with someone. Unlike physical energy, which depletes as you use it, relational energy can multiply when nurtured.

Research shows that leaders, coworkers, and even peers outside of work can be powerful sources of this energy.

Energizing relationships fuel engagement, creativity, and performance.

Draining ones do the opposite—raising stress, killing innovation and eroding trust.

Here is a simple five question scale for you to measure your relational energy (created by Owen et al.) Think of a person you interact with regularly and rate how much you agree with each statement from 5 to 1, 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree:

1. I feel invigorated when I interact with this person.

2. After interacting with this person, I feel more energy to do my work.

3. I feel increased vitality when I interact with this person.

4. After an exchange with this person, I feel more stamina to do my work.

5. I feel energized when I interact with this person.

Your answers reveal which relationships in your life fuel you—and which ones drain you. Could you identify these relationships? Would love to hear.

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Published by Padma Rajeswari

At the outset, I would like to thank you for stopping by my Blog. I believe that there is nothing right or wrong in this world. What’s right in this moment and context may be wrong in another moment and context. This belief has inspired me to name my blog ‘Perspectives’. Perspectives is a platform for me to share my experiences, thoughts and perspectives on various subjects. You may have a different point of view. I look forward to hearing them, these are the triggers for rich and deep conversations. On personal front, I live in Mumbai, India. I love to read; Somerset Maugham and Nevil Shute are my favorite authors. My favorite books are The Razor’s Edge, Mrs. Craddock, Chequer Board and Gone with the Wind. I am thankful to my father who inculcated the habit of reading in me early on. I am also passionate about traveling, I have been to most parts of India and to several countries across the globe. On professional front, I work in Human Resources function. Over two and half decades, I have worked across multiple industries and cultures. I focus on Leadership Development, Talent Management, Visioning and Culture, Large-scale change, Employee Listening & Engagement, Employee Well-being, Inclusive work culture, HR effectiveness, Behavior and Mind-set shifts through sustained interventions I currently lead Organization Effectiveness Function for Aditya Birla Group, a $44.3 billion conglomerate with 120000 employees across 35 countries. I sincerely hope that you will enjoy reading my blog. I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you!

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