Keynote Suneel Gupta helps leaders reclaim their energy

As schedules tighten and pressures mount from every direction, municipal leaders can embrace habits to help them maintain their energy and serve their communities more effectively, bestselling author and entrepreneur Suneel Gupta told the Connect 351 audience during the general session on Jan. 24 in Boston.

The author of two books including “Everyday Dharma” and host of the docuseries “Business Class,” Gupta shared insights from his research on success and failure, as well as energy-management strategies to help municipal officials improve their creativity, productivity and leadership skills while improving balance to their own lives.

Gupta recognized the demands that are draining the energy of municipal officials — long days, night meetings, public criticism, political uncertainty, and their own family and personal needs. At the same time, many people are depending on them to maintain their energy and keep going.

“So that’s not a lot of sleep, that’s not a lot of time, right?,” Gupta said. “But you’re trying to balance all this. … Oftentimes, you are the first line of defense. People are coming to you.”

Local government leaders are not alone in this struggle, Gupta said. Surveys find that 70% of workers are experiencing high levels of stress and low energy. Gupta said he coaches many leaders, and about 40% of C-suite executives are considering leaving their jobs over the next year due to energy depletion and exhaustion — and that number approaches 75% in health care.

“So we are, at this moment in time, in a human energy crisis, where everywhere we look, people are running low on this energy,” he said. “And as leaders, we need to understand this. We need to understand how to lift our own energy and the energy of the people around us.”

Gupta came to this work as an entrepreneur. After a couple of unsuccessful startup attempts, he became the founding CEO of the mobile health company RISE, which partnered with then-First Lady Michelle Obama to provide low-cost health coaching to people in need. In his Amazon series, “Business Class,” he interviews entrepreneurs about the secrets to their leadership and success. He is also a visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School, where he studies and analyzes the habits of the “most extraordinary people in the world.”

In his travels, Gupta discovered that the most successful people don’t obsess over time management, but have learned how to manage their energy, developing ways to keep going, build momentum and get things done in the face of obstacles and competing pressures. Using the metaphor of a shoebox containing precious items, Gupta offered the audience tools and techniques to store in their “mental shoebox,” to help maintain resilience, and help “lift your energy and the energy of the people around you.”

High performers don’t wait for some long-off vacation to recharge, he said. Instead, they take breaks throughout the day. He cited examples like actor and filmmaker Jon Favreau, who plays the ukulele in his trailer in his spare moments, and Martha Stewart, an octagenarian who works long hours but also devotes time to gardening, playing with her pets, and horseback riding.

Gupta recommends a 55/5 model: for every 55 minutes of work, devote five minutes to focused, deliberate rest. He said these transitions are more effective than going from one meeting straight to the next.

“When we talk about well-being, when we talk about energy, it’s not something that is selfish,” he said. “It’s actually something that is selfless, because what we’re trying to do is get enough energy that we can bring to all the projects and the people that we are serving.”

To keep teams motivated and energized, Gupta said, leaders should “fall in love with the problem before falling in love with a solution.” Leaders have an opportunity to excite their teams about the problem and about participating in problem-solving.

He shared advice he received from a Stanford Business School instructor, who emphasized the value of curiosity in leadership.

“And what she said to me, I’ll never forget, is that we think that our job as leaders is to have the answers, but it’s not,” he said. “Our job, as leaders, is to create conditions where the best answers can be found, and the way that we do that is through open-hearted curiosity.”

Gupta advised municipal leaders to “switch the spotlight” onto other people, saying that acts of kindness and service boost energy. The best leaders go into situations focusing on what they can give, rather than what they get out of the situations.

When the work becomes a grind, Gupta said, leaders should stay connected to the larger narrative of why the work matters, instead of getting mired in details.

“So it’s not just about starting with why; it’s about sticking with why,” he said. “And the way that we can do this, oftentimes, is … reminding ourselves of the stories of the people that we are serving.”