Your energy speaks before you do. Is it saying what you want it to? EnQ: Energetic Intelligence® is the measure of how you harness and utilize your energy and bioenergetic communication to have the impact you want to have as a leader. Based on 7 components derived from years of client research and case studies, and backed by both science and experiential wisdom, EnQ is a framework that will impact your everyday life and your legacy as a leader.
You’re familiar with IQ and EQ, your cognitive and emotional intelligence, respectively. Energetic Intelligence, or EnQ, contains both of those, as well as your physical, mental, and energetic bodies. EnQ comprises an all-encompassing and actionable intelligence.
IQ = thinking
EQ = feeling
EnQ = Being.
Just as there are skills and exercises that enhance your IQ and EQ, there are also practices and distinctions that will enhance your EnQ. Unseen but all-powerful, your energy and EnQ is constantly impacting your thoughts, feelings, and actions, which in turn fuels and impacts how you collaborate with other energy (people, animals, emotions, and even objects) around you. We are all made of energy, and energy does not tell lies. Regardless of IQ or EQ, your energy speaks before you do. The “7 Wheels of Leadership” approach provides a framework that will train you to harness and be responsible for what your energy is saying.
Have you ever met someone and instantly felt a connection, a synergy, before they even say a word? Or, conversely: you’ve met someone new, and before the conversation even starts, without any rational reason, you don’t like them — you just have a feeling about them... and it isn’t good. The phenomenon of how our energy knows things before our minds do is demonstrated in several EnQ experiments. I’ve been in dozens of rooms where strangers were asked to pair off according to who they are most or least drawn to, without any information or introduction to one another. Results show that people are attracted to those who display qualities they want more of, and people are repelled by those who display characteristics that they themselves possess but wish they didn’t (or don’t realize they do because it’s a major blindspot).
Why does that make EnQ important for coaches and leaders?
As a leader, it is crucial that you’re fully aware of what your energy is saying and how it’s impacting those around you. IQ and EQ can help leaders succeed, but they can also form the exact habits or patterns that get us stuck in energetic and behavioral patterns that don’t serve us in getting to our next level of leadership. It can be hard to notice when the brilliant mind or the caring heart are in the way of one’s impact; those blindspots are where a great coach and EnQ come into play.
EnQ is not a fixed property; it will evolve and stretch with your leadership development. Like physical fitness, EnQ requires conscious, consistent practice to build strength and maintain effectiveness. Like IQ and EQ, some leaders are naturally gifted or more comfortable with certain aspects of EnQ. Unlike IQ tests or certain personality diagnostics, EnQ assessments and EnQ-based coaching serve by indicating some simple practice areas that can create new results in as little as a few minutes, versus certain tests or frameworks that leave people feeling boxed into a fixed (and flawed) archetypal identity. Every single human is capable of developing and heightening their EnQ. Every single coach is capable of making a lifelong difference for their clients using this work.
Here, we will cover EnQ’s “7 Wheels of Leadership”: an introduction to the framework, along with a few tools and practices that will train you to be aware of:
what your energy is saying,
how it’s impacting others, and
how to master it in a way that will help you thrive during even the most uncertain and challenging times.
I’ve been honing the concept of EnQ for years. For years, I studied and practiced various coaching techniques, ontology, neuroscience and psychology behind coaching and behavioral change, spiritual development, and leadership development. I observed that the coaching, development, and leadership practices that were most effective for my clients and myself happened to align with 7 major areas of energetic input and output. (Coincidentally, the 7 points align with the 7 major chakras, which I’ve also studied and practiced for over 21 years, and while EnQ is not related to any specific religion or dogma, I do find the 7 chakras to be a helpful reference point for organizing the information.)
Scientists have noted that we each have measurable, detectable electromagnetic frequency, and our energy fields are constantly transmitting signals to and from other people, beings, objects, and even the Earth's surface. We actually have energetic centers, or wheels, spinning throughout our system. The locations of these energetic wheels correspond with various organs, hormones, and nerves; attention and energy applied to these powerful energy centers impacts our emotions, bodily functions, and states of Being. As a leader, if you're aware of your energy centers and how they operate, you become aware of energy leaks and energy charges, allowing you to access your fullest capacity for power, influence, enjoyment, and impact.
I’ve utilized hundreds of client case studies to pinpoint the 7 wheels of energy (and areas of energetic focus) that are aligned in the leaders who display and report the highest levels of confidence, productivity, profitability, well-being, and overall fulfillment and joy in their careers and personal lives. I have also found that these same energy centers exist not only in every single person, but also in every single organization, so you can practice EnQ on an individual level, and organizational level, and even a global level.
I specialize in working with global leaders who care deeply about leaving this world better than they found it. EnQ is the framework to support that commitment.
A brief summary is in the graphic below, and this article is the first of a series of deeper dives into each wheel that will further explain how this system will enhance your life and work as a coach, a leader, or simply as a human being.
This might seem like an overwhelming system to remember at first glance, but there are more simplified check-ins and tools that will help you identify that 7 Wheels for yourself, your clients, and fellow leaders. It will be an indispensable resource once you begin to integrate into everyday life and leadership.
The 7 Wheels of EnQ-based Leadership:
1st Wheel: The Foundation of Your Leadership. “I Am”. This is your humanity. Leaders are humans first. Self-awareness and self-acceptance form the basis of of a healthy energetic foundation. For some folks, this area also requires some attention on basic survival needs (healthy food, hidration, fresh air, sunlight - not spending so much time as your desk that your body is suffering). Healthy work and home environments. Connected to shared experience of humanity (imperfections in self and others are discerned and addressed without shame). Your financial health is also part of this wheel; one of the primary rules of EnQ is "Know what's so with your Dough"! An energetically healthy foundation includes self- care and well-being, healthy home life, and stability in work, finances, and self-regulation.
2nd Wheel: The JOY of Your Leadership. “I create”. Creative power pertains to everything from creating actual human life to bringing creative ideas into tangible form. Whether you are birthing a baby or a book, your 2nd Wheel governs the process from innovation, to conception, to the celebration of its creation. It's a power leak to overlook or deny any element of that process. Quick and easy EnQ practice: celebrating the wins, large and small, every single day.
3rd Wheel: The DOING of Your Leadership. “I will”. One of the most profound challenges of EnQ mastery is the balance of Doing + Being. Leaders with low EnQ tend to fall into one of two camps: muzzled visionaries or disconnected doers. Visionaries bring the ideas and inspiration, but don't always implement or execute. Doers are the builders who bring the action and project management, but sometimes get disconnected from the heart or the fulfilling experience of what they're creating. Visionaries can easily get stuck in their thoughts and dreams, and Doers can become isolated or burned out because of the nonstop action. Practices and distinctions involving the 3rd Wheel keep both of those types of leaders present to what’s possible when thoughts, words, actions, and commitments are all aligned. EnQ Leaders are in consistent, inspired action, with ample, empowered rest and delegation. They are also consistently in partnership with a healthy support system of other inspired, committed leaders.
4th Wheel: The Heart of Your Leadership. “We”. The heart of leadership bridges the humanity of the first 3 Wheels with “divinity” (this word can be used in a spiritual or non-religious context, depending on the leader or organization) of the upper Wheels. Humanity + Higher Purpose come together in a leader who can set aside ego in order to 1. freely give and receive support, 2. practice empathy and compassion, and 3. put the needs of the team/We ahead of the needs of the individual/I in a way that creates win/win situations more often than win/lose power dynamics. A low EnQ leadership system is isolating and disheartening for the organization and the individuals within it.
5th Wheel: The Voice of Your Leadership. “I communicate”. Humans all have implicit biases that filter our thinking, hearing, and speaking. Great leaders are aware of the impact their biases might have on their decision making and communication skills. Practices that support the 5th Wheel will “clean the filters” on our speaking and listening, so that our leadership can be truly aligned with a sense of self and others that is as free of judgment and bias as is humanly possible.
6th Wheel: The Wisdom of Your Leadership. “I know”. Going with your gut is reliable only when you are attuned to the voice of Intuition over the voice of Fear. Many leaders struggle to discern which is which. The 6th Wheel version of “I know” is embodied with the quiet, calm, heart-centered wisdom of a sage — distinctly different from the ego’s righteous, tense version of the same phrase.
7th Wheel: The Mission + Vision of Your Leadership. “I contribute”. A great leader cultivates a vision that inspires action toward a purpose-driven, energetically healthy result. A clear mission and vision provides the container for leadership. The 1st Wheel and 7th Wheel are generally the first two places to look when coaching and developing powerful leadership; they are also two of the most vital places to look when one’s leadership or results are in breakdown. Whatever a leader’s spiritual background or belief system, the 7th Wheel is a reliable place to recharge and recalibrate when any of the other Wheels seem stuck or misaligned.
When our energy is fully aligned, we are in such a naturally empowered state of Being that we may not even notice, so sometimes the best way to approach Energetic Intelligence as a tool is to distinguish what it looks and feels like when our energy is stuck.
Coming up next: a brief overview of the 7 Biggest Blocks to Leadership, and how EnQ can help.
In summary,
EnQ: Energetic Intelligence® is whole-person, integrative leadership development informed by ancient wisdom and modern science. My work is where the “woo-woo” meets the “To Do”, and the EnQ framework is human, personal, and professional development that trains leaders to be better humans and humans to be more impactful leaders.
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