Good quality leadership is not a personality trait. It is an energy practice.

Let me start with a question. Have you ever left a meeting feeling clearer, lighter, more capable… and more motivated? Now the reverse. Have you ever walked out of a conversation feeling flat, second-guessing yourself, or oddly exhausted?Same workload. Same people. Very different workplace experience.

That difference has a name. And it sits right at the centre of good quality leadership.

The real leadership problem (it is not effort)

Most leaders are not disengaged or indifferent. You care. You are trying. You want high performance teams that deliver results without burning people out. But here is the tension. You are being asked to produce peak performance in environments shaped by uncertainty, hybrid work, and constant change. The old levers, pressure, targets, longer hours, are increasingly unreliable.

There is no silver bullet. But there is a factor we consistently underestimate.

Energy. Specifically, relational energy.

Relational energy, in plain English

Relational energy is the psychological resource people gain or lose through interactions with others. Some interactions energise you. Others drain you. That effect is measurable and consequential (Owens et al., 2016). Here is the counterintuitive insight. Physical, emotional, and mental energy are depleted through use. Relational energy is generated through use.

In other words, every interaction you have as a leader is either building or draining the system you rely on to perform. And yes, that includes your own energy.

Why relational energy matters for leadership and teamwork

Research on energy networks inside organisations shows that people identified as “positive energisers” consistently outperform their peers. More importantly, they raise the performance of those around them (Baker, Cross & Wooten, 2003; Cameron, 2021). Even more interesting is that a person’s position in the relational energy network predicts performance more strongly than their role, seniority, or access to information (Owens et al., 2016).

This is why leadership and teamwork are not just structural challenges. They are relational ones.

High performance teams are not problem-free. They simply have more trust, more psychological safety, and more capacity to engage with difficulty without becoming depleted (Edmondson, 2018).

What good quality leadership looks like in practice

Insight is useful. Behaviour is decisive. If you are wondering what this means day-to-day, here are a few simple experiments that lift the relational energy of anyone you are interacting with. Try one. Keep what works. Drop what doesn’t. The objective is to leave people with more energy and more capacity to perform than before they had an interaction with you.

In meetings

• Name progress before problems (this counters our natural negativity bias).

• Invite one voice that has not spoken yet.

• Frame challenges as learning questions, not competence tests.

In one-on-ones

• Listen to understand, not to fix.

• Reflect capability, especially after mistakes.

• Ask: “What part of your work is giving you energy right now?”

Under pressure

• Address behaviour directly, without shaming.

• Separate the person from the problem.

• Hold standards and dignity at the same time.

These behaviours are not “soft”. Research shows that leaders who consistently generate relational energy increase engagement, learning, and performance even when controlling for traditional leadership quality and social support (Owens et al., 2016).

Leading in a flexible workplace

In a flexible workplace, leadership quality becomes amplified.

Fewer interactions mean each one carries more weight. A single de-energising leader can quickly (and silently) erode trust and motivation across a dispersed team. Conversely, brief energising interactions can stabilise performance across time and distance.

This is why human connection is not a “nice to have” in flexible work. It is a performance condition.

Leaders must pay attention not only to what gets done, but to how people feel after interactions. Relational energy is created in tone, presence, curiosity, and respect, not in policy documents.

From peak performance to sustainable high performance

Peak performance is episodic. It is a sprint. And sustainable high performance is relational and systemic.

Relational energy fuels engagement, focus, learning, and resilience, the psychological states that allow people to perform well over time without burning out (Owens et al., 2016; Cameron, 2021). When leaders consistently energise others, employees are more likely to experience meaning at work, contribute discretionary effort, and associate performance with purpose rather than depletion.

That is the difference between extracting results and sustaining them.

A final thought

Good quality leadership is not about doing more.

It is about becoming more aware of the energy you create.

• You do not need to change your personality.

• You do not need to become endlessly positive.

• You do not need another leadership model.

You need attention. Intention. And small, repeatable behaviours that compound over time.
And that is how organisations build sustainable high performance without sacrificing the people who make it possible.

Try one interaction differently this week.

Just one.

See what happens.

References

• Baker, W., Cross, R., & Wooten, M. (2003). Positive organizational network analysis and energizing relationships. In K. Cameron, J. Dutton & R. Quinn (Eds.), Positive Organizational Scholarship. Berrett-Koehler.

• Cameron, K. (2021). Positively Energizing Leadership: Virtuous Actions and Relationships That Create High Performance. Berrett-Koehler.

• Edmondson, A. (2018). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Wiley.

• Owens, B. P., Baker, W. E., Sumpter, D. M., & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Relational energy at work: Implications for job engagement and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(1), 35–49.