What Is Positively Energizing Leadership?
Leaders who create energy
unlock human flourishing
Positively energizing leaders exhibit virtuous behaviors — compassion, integrity, forgiveness, and gratitude — while fostering relational energy that revitalizes the people around them.
Just as plants turn toward sunlight to grow, people naturally flourish in the presence of leaders who generate positive energy. Positively energizing leaders don't just manage — they vitalize. They leave people feeling more capable, more motivated, and more alive at work.
Relational Energy
A surge of psychological resourcefulness that an individual experiences through interaction with another person, which increases their capacities — their motivation, vitality, and ability to perform.
Virtuous Behavior
Behaviors reflecting the highest aspirations to which human beings aspire — compassion, integrity, forgiveness, gratitude, and trust — that are intrinsically valued and naturally draw people toward the leader who embodies them.
Why It Matters
The research is clear
Positively energizing leadership is one of the strongest predictors of employee well-being and engagement ever documented.
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Your Well-Being at Work
Research shows that your sense of well-being at work is largely explained by whether your leader positively energizes those around them.
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Your Engagement
Whether you feel engaged, motivated, and energized at work is significantly shaped by your leader's capacity to generate positive relational energy.
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Burnout & Exhaustion
Burnout is not just about workload — it is about energy. Leaders who deplete rather than generate relational energy are a primary driver of workplace exhaustion.
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The Good News
Positively energizing leadership is not a fixed trait. It is a set of learnable, developable behaviors — and measuring it is the first step to growing it.
The Research
Rigorously developed. Empirically validated.
Developed over three years in collaboration with academics and organizational researchers, the PELS is the first validated measure of positively energizing leadership.
3 Years
In Development
603
Participants
18
Validated Items
How It Works
Four steps to your personalized report
STEP 01
Your Background
A brief intake about your role, organization, and the leader you'll be evaluating
STEP 02
Leader Narratives
Share two short stories that capture how your leader energizes (or de-energizes) those around them
STEP 03
The PELS Scale
Rate your leader on 18 validated items across relational energy and virtuous behavior
STEP 04
Your Report
Receive your personalized score, attribute profile, and evidence-based practices — downloadable as PDF
Ready to discover your
leadership energy profile?
Take the validated 18-item assessment and receive your personalized report with evidence-based practices to support your well-being at work.