There’s a better way to work. Human beings aren’t meant to operate the same way that computers do: continuously, at high speed, for long periods of time, running multiple programs at the same time. Still, we try. It’s a prescription for exhaustion. Schwartz shows audiences a new path to achieve breakthrough and sustainable high performance — starting today. We’re at our best when we move between periods of expending and intermittently renewing our four key sources of energy: physical (quantity), emotional (quality), mental (focus), and spiritual (purpose). This is something the world’s best athletes and trainers have known for years. The more skillfully and systematically we learn to manage our energy, the more resilient, focused, engaged and sustainably productive we become. The same is true for those you manage.

As demand in our lives outpaces our capacity, the fundamental responsibility of any leader is to mobilize, focus, inspire and sustain the energy of those they lead — and fuel sustainable high performance. For the leader as Chief Energy Officer, the challenge ahead is not to get more out of people — but to systematically invest in better meeting their needs, so they’re freed, fueled and inspired to bring more of themselves to work every day. We each have four energy needs -- physical (sustainability); emotional (security); mental (self-expression) and spiritual (significance). When leaders begin by taking care of their own energy needs, and empower those they lead to do the same, the result is workforce that is healthier, happier, more focused, more motivated and higher performing. Leaders at many of the world’s top companies have applied Tony Schwartz’s principles and practices — both in their own lives and across their organizations — and experienced extraordinary results.