Energy Rising: The Neuroscience of Leading with Emotional Power
Julia DiGangi
Harvard Business Review Press (September 2023)
How and why emotional lives run on the brain’s real, physical energy…for better or worse
Years ago, Theodore Roosevelt observed that “people won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” That is especially true of relationships between leaders and those who follow them.
According to Julia DiGangi, “This book is based on a novel and simple premise: Your emotional power is best understood not as a set of activities you do or strategies you execute, [begin bold face] but as an energy you possess [end bold face]. And when you learn to intelligently harness this energy, you begin to lead your life in the direction you desire.” She focuses on two kinds of emotional energies: “ones that hurt and ones that heal. For our conversation, we;’ll call these two energies Emotional pain (i.e. any negative emotional sensation you feel) and Emotional power (i.e. any negative emotional sensation that makes you feel worthy).” She wrote this book in order to help as many people as possible to “come into a more intelligent relationship with their emotions. When they do, their lives, and the lives of the many people they touch, are transformed for good.
Of special interest to me is how skillfully Julia DiGangi provides valuable information, insights, and counsel within a framework of what she characterizes as “neurogenetic codes” that serve as a “blueprint” for “explaining how you can harness your brain’s energy to create specific improvements in your life and the lives of others.”
More specifically, DiGangi explains HOW TO
1. Transform your emotional pain into emotional power
2. Harness the brain’s pattern-detection abilities
3. Work with your deepest emotion in the toughest situations
4. Stay emotionally powerful in the energy of uncertainty
5. Understand how childhood directs the way(s) you lead your life
6. Eliminate ineffective command-and-control attitude and behavior
7. Create/establish/strengthen your emotional power with positive impact
8. Design your most power/productive/beneficial relationships at work and elsewhere
Obviously, no brief commentary such as mine could possibly do full justice to the quality and value of the material in this book but I hope I have at least indicated why I think so highly of it and of its author, Julia DiGangi. I agree with her: “Each neuroenergetic code offers powerful insightsz for strengthening your emotional power — your ability to stay strong in the midst of life’s inevitable challenges. The neuroenergetic codes provide insight into the science behind how your brain works.”
She has made an invaluable contribution to thought leadership. Bravo!
Here are two suggestions while you are reading Energy Rising: Highlight key passages, and, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), and page references as well as your responses to questions posed and to lessons you have learned. Complete each “Exercise” with care and candor on pages 39, 79, 86, 96, 131, 145, 157, and 163 as well as in the Appendix, “Connecting the Codes: A Summary.”
These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.