Energy
The inflection point for Amazon was a meeting in 1996 with John Doerr, a partner at the prestigious venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins. Witnesses recall that when Doerr left the meeting with Bezos he was visibly changed. Something in his interaction with the Amazon founder had flipped a switch, and he was suddenly an avid believer in the growth potential of this upstart Internet firm. His subsequent eagerness to invest began a bidding war that boosted Amazon’s valuation from $10M to $60M in just a few days.
What was the key factor behind this instant conversion? According to Doerr himself: “I walked through the door and this guy with a boisterous laugh who was just exuding energy comes bounding down the steps. In that moment, I wanted to be in business with Jeff.”
In Time, Talent, Energy, Mankins and Garton argue that energy is the single most important variable explaining company performance. They were addressing the problem of institutional drag, but we can apply their framework to individual performance as well. Individual output, like company output, is a function of productivity (time), capability (talent), and vitality (energy).
We've all noticed how group energy can change, for good and for ill, because of a single person. One individual's energy can have a non-linear effect on the room, enervating or enlivening the collective dynamic in an instant. Effective influencers bring a distinctive kind of energy: one that is purposeful, positive, and playful.
In David Brooks’ latest book, How To Know A Person, he observes that people set a tone for how others interact with them. Our core behavioral posture can establish a consistent pattern of experience:
"Some people walk into a room with an expression that is warm and embracing; others walk in looking cool and closed up. Some people first encounter others with a gaze that is generous and loving; other people regard those they meet with a formal and aloof gaze. That gaze, that first sight, represents a posture toward the world. A person who is looking for beauty is likely to find wonders, while a person looking for threats will find danger. A person who beams warmth brings out the glowing sides of the people she meets, while a person who conveys formality can meet the same people and find them stiff and detached."
For influence challenges, whether it's making the case for venture funding or corporate spend, we have a tendency to emphasize the outer game, by which I mean the explicit evidence of our ability. We highlight things that are measurable and concrete, for example in the decks we've built or the analysis we've done.
Quite often, however, it's the implicit realm, the nature of our attention, that matters at least as much. In sales and other domains, influence can often be more of an inner game. It comes down to the transfer of emotion. A deal can fade or flourish because of the energy we bring.