The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal

Extremely well written . the concept of the book - is that - We have a problem with 'energy management' in life and not time management. and for various types of energy we require like physical ,emotional,mental and spiritual - there are excellent points/tips given on how we can recharge our energies and use them ....very very useful ....actually i am thrilled by the value of inputs herein.

It talks about both engagement and disengagement. How Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energies matter to improve overall efficiencies.

Gud concept but a bit dragged

I am overwhelmed reading it. Great book

Amazing book with research based high performance tips. The content is not simple preaching but substantiated with established facts..a great read

Good concept

The bind, paper and print quality of the book is pretty bad, more like a xerox copy, and just does not justify the price tag.

I just received this book and everything else is fine but the last page bottom left corner was torn and there are scratches on the book cover. The pictures are attached.

I recently re-read this book and was curious to know to what extent (if any) it has lost any of its relevance during the years since it was first published, in 2003. My conclusion? If anything, it is even more relevant now than it was before. However, that said, I still presume to suggest to those who are thinking about reading that they ignore the title and focus on the methodology that Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz introduce and then explain. Of course, full engagement has power. However, I cannot think of even one company among those annually ranked by Fortune to be the most highly admired, the best to work for, etc. that has full engagement. In fact, the results of recent research by the Gallup Organization and Towers Perrin clearly indicate that, on average, about 25-30% of employees are actively and productively engaged, about 35-40% are passively engaged (doing as little as necessary to stay employed), and about the same percentage are actively disengaged, with many of them hostile and having a toxic effect within their workplace. Obviously, the challenge for business leaders in all organizations (whatever their size and nature my be) is to increase the percentage of those workers who are actively and productively engaged. What do Loehr and Schwartz suggest? All of their insights and recommendations are based on a vast amount of real-world experience with all manner of organizations. What they offer in this volume is the Full Engagement Training System®, a comprehensive and cohesive program that enables us to manage energy efficiently. The methodology is based on four separate but interdependent principles: 1. Full engagement requires drawing on separate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. "All four dynamics are critical, none is sufficient by itself and each profoundly influences the others [for better or worse]. To perform at our best, we must skillfully manage each of these interconnected dimensions of energy." 2. Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal. "We rarely consider how much energy we are spending because we take it for granted that the energy available to us is limitless. In fact, increased demand progressively depletes our energy reserves - especially in the absence of any effort to reverse the progressive loss of capacity that occurs with age." 3. To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do. "Stress is not the enemy in our lives. Paradoxically, it is the key to growth. In order to build strength in a muscle we must systematically stress it, expending energy beyond normal levels. Doing so literally causes microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. At the end of a training session, functional capacity is diminished. But give the muscle twenty-four to forty-eight hours to recover and it grows stronger and better able to handle the next stimulus." 4. Positive energy rituals - highly specific routines for managing energy - are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance. "Change is difficult. We are creatures of habit. Most of what we do is automatic and nonconscious. What we did yesterday is what we are likely to do today...A positive ritual is a behavior that becomes automatic over time - fueled by some deeply held value." As indicated earlier, Loehr and Schwartz have devised what they call the Full Engagement Training System® and one of several key points they make is that both supervisors and those for whom they are directly responsible are active in this program, one that involves a shared journey of observation, revelation, and increased understanding. Another is that there are continuous role reversals for both "students" and "teachers" during frequent knowledge exchanges. Still another key point is that one of the most important drivers is the human need to find meaning, "among the most powerful and enduring themes in every culture since the origin of recorded history." And still another is that those who are purpose-driven must also constantly nurture and regularly renew their "most precious resource," energy, and expend it only in the service of what matters most. Forget about having a workforce with full engagement and concentrate on increasing the number of workers who are fully engaged. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz can provide invaluable assistance to those who are now planning or who are only recently embarked on efforts to achieve that worthy objective.

Um dos livros mais práticos que já li em minha vida. Sublinhei quase metade do livro de tão bem estruturado e cheio de ideias e o melhor de tudo: quase todo prático. Existem alguns exemplos de clientes que participaram do programa do "Full Engagement", porém até esses dados são interessantes. Se esse livro não mudar sua vida, esqueça de ler auto ajuda. Se aplicar 1/3 do que ele diz, já haverão grandes mudanças. Nota-se o nível de profissionalismo do autor que não enrolar e vai direto ao ponto com uma boa experiência de vida seguido de base científica.

Le sujet du livre m’a fortement intéressé car je ressens souvent de la frustration dans mes activités, à cause de mes capacités de concentration (par exemple au travail) ou à cause de mon manque d’engagement dans le temps (quand j’essaie de me remettre au sport). Ainsi m’aider à gérer mon énergie et à bâtir des rituels est un sujet qui me parle. Les auteurs ont une manière très pragmatiques d’aborder les choses, et les multiples exemples qui fourmillent à travers le livre où les auteurs reprennent en charge la vie de leurs clients en est la parfaite illustration : ils ne chamboulent pas tout avec des méthodes destinées à changer la vie des gens, mais insèrent au fur et à mesure des petits changements qui ont de grandes conséquences. Souvent ces petits changements sont évidents : dormir un peu plus, manger un peu mieux, faire le bilan sur ses valeurs, prendre un peu plus de temps pour soi pour ne plus subir mais être acteur… Finalement leur message est que rien ne sert de se concentrer quinze heures par jour à une activité (dans 99% des cas son travail) si nous n’avons pas une routine de vie saine qui nous assure une bonne quantité dans les quatre types d’énergie différents. C’est en tout cas un sujet complexe car chacun a des façons différentes de se ressourcer, mais inutile de se mentir : nous sommes tous capables d’identifier certains de nos comportements qui ne servent pas nos objectifs à long terme. Ce livre fait réfléchir et nous donne des pistes pour nous améliorer tout en allant à contre-courant de certaines pratiques modernes. Une lecture que je conseille ! Adrien Delambre [...])

Many good points and ideas to reflect on and take into consideration if you want to have a work life balance

I an a creative person who has grown up with well-organized parents. I have been a multitasking high-achiever my whole life. But at some point, when demands of family reduced, I reached comfortable career level, my willpower to run like a squirrel in the wheel has just vanished. I slowed down, and started doing more activities for pure pleasure. All those necessary things like house repairs, budgets, financial decisions, things to do just started piling up. In vain I tried to manage my time, my schedule, and my life using all kinds of techniques and blaming myself for abandoning them too quickly. My brain was full of things to do which kept adding up before I can do them. I felt desperate and saw no end to this vicious circle. That's when I have read Rich Schefren's recommendation for this book. For people who are creative, like exploration , like trying multiple things at a time, this book seemed like a perfect system to do what you want while still keeping track of what needs to be done in the easiest manner. It promised to teach you how to do use your limited energy to make the most out of your time, whatever meaning this has for you. The concepts of managing energy not time, and doing things according to your level of energy made so much sense. I was wasting my high energy time on doing things that don't matter, then not having energy on things that do matter. The biggest help was a system to remember things, offloading them from your brain, freeing up your brain power for more important things like creativity, brainstorming, etc. We naturally focus on one-two types of the energies: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Emotional, and disregard others. Once we understand the importance of each kind of energy, we can better use them to do things we love most. I finally sorted my financial folders by alphabet, taught my family where to put receipts, and my bookkeeping stopped being a problem. I started using post-it notes and folders, and recording next steps. This made my work and hone projects way easier, and I always remembered my promises. I as avoiding doing this for some reason that makes little sense to me now that I see how much this has improved my life. Yes, this book is geared towards busy execs, not a super easy read, but it's worth a read for anyone who has more than one thing on their plate. Spend your energy on book that will teach you how to multiply your energy. Seems like a no-brainer to me :)