The Biggest Blindspot in Leadership

If You Don’t Understand Energy, You’re Misreading People

RICK GRIFFIN DEC 09, 2025

Welcome back if you have been riding along on this little science adventure with me. If you are new here, you wandered into the third article in a series where I unpack the big ideas from a foundational paper by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett and Dr. J. Benjamin Hutchinson. You will be caught up in no time. I promise.

Here is the quick recap just in case the first two posts were a little TLDR for you.

The first article focused on prediction over reaction. Your brain is not waiting for life to happen. It is forecasting nonstop and using the past to guess the next moment, shaping what you see and remember and do, and leaders who understand this start responding to people with insight instead of frustration.

The second article made the case that moments are connected. Nothing pops out of nowhere. Every thought and feeling carries traces of the moment right before it. It is all one long chain whether we notice it or not. Leaders who understand this chain read the room with far more accuracy because they stop treating reactions as isolated events and start seeing the momentum behind them.

This month we get into my favorite topic. Energy is the boss. The brain anticipates and balances the body’s energy budget every second. It explains why behavior shifts on a dime. It explains why people in the same room can walk away with completely different reactions. And it explains why leaders suddenly feel like the whole team has switched languages halfway through the afternoon.

Before we jump into the research, let me tell you something. Dr. Barrett is the reason I pay such close attention to body energy in the first place. Her body budget analogy hit me like a lightning strike. It made everything about human behavior feel clearer. So I went swimming in this research again. You know how that goes. One minute you are reading a calm academic paper. Ten minutes later you are whispering oh wow. This explains half the people I know.

The paper from Dr. Hutchinson and Dr. Barrett hit in that exact way. It talks about body energy. Not in a yoga class way. In a this runs everything inside your brain way. And it is something leaders and human service professionals need to understand.

Let’s get into it.

The Brain’s Energy Budget

Your brain is always running an energy budget. It is not waiting for you to get tired or hungry. It is predicting what you will need next. Then it adjusts your whole body to match that prediction. The science word for this is allostasis. You can think of it as your brain trying to keep the lights on before the bill comes due.

Here is the part that still amazes me. The regions of the brain that create predictions are the same regions that regulate the body’s energy. And they sit at the top of the brain’s hierarchy. They act first. They set the tone. They launch the story that your thoughts and emotions follow. The diagrams in the research show this clearly. The limbic regions start the prediction stream. Those signals shape what your senses even notice.

This means the energy system does not join the conversation later. It starts the conversation.

The research makes another point that I think every leader should know. Learning costs energy. Updating beliefs costs energy. Even a small surprise costs energy. Your brain tries to conserve energy whenever it can. It is not lazy. It is efficient. When the budget gets tight, everything gets harder. Focus drops. Emotional steadiness drops. Curiosity drops. The ability to take in new information drops.

Now think about your workplace for a second. Enough said.

The Power of Tiny Things

The paper goes into how small things shape the energy system. Sleep. Caffeine. Sugar. Hydration. Even the time of day. It sounds basic. It is not. These shifts change how your brain processes information. The paper shows that by adjusting test times to match someone’s circadian rhythm, performance becomes more consistent. It reduces noise. It makes results more reliable. That is on page seven if you want to see the details.

I keep thinking about how many managers would make better decisions if they understood that one page.

Meaning Lives in the Body

Here is the part that stopped me. The researchers say psychologists often treat emotions or threats as if they live inside the situation itself. A picture. A tone of voice. A conversation. But the research says the meaning comes from the match between your body and the moment.

Nothing is stressful on its own. Nothing is neutral on its own. Your energy state decides how you experience it. That explains so much of our workplace confusion. Two people see the same thing. One is calm. One is overwhelmed. The difference can be as simple as sleep, blood sugar, or a drained energy budget.

Why Leaders Need To Know This

I am not going to pull any punch. You can’t lead people well if you do not understand what their energy state is doing to their brain. This is the entire premise of being Neuro Informed.

You see irritation. You assume attitude. But the person might be overdrawn in their energy account.

You see someone zone out in a meeting. You think they don’t care. But their brain might be conserving energy the same way your phone dims when the battery hits ten percent.

People judge character when they should be noticing chemistry. They assume laziness. Or defiance. Or lack of commitment. But the science shows a low energy state narrows perception. It tightens emotional bandwidth. It slows learning. It turns the brain inward for protection. Not out of choice. Out of survival.

This matters for leaders because your decisions shape people’s lives. Hiring. Coaching. Conflict mediation. Promotions. Every one of these moments is shaped by the energy states in the room. When you miss this, you misread people. You think they are rude. Or unprofessional. Or unmotivated. When in reality, they are tired. Or thirsty. Or anxious. Or fighting a circadian dip.

This matters for human service professionals because many of the people you serve live in unpredictable conditions. Unpredictability burns energy. They walk in depleted. They get judged for behavior that is really biology doing its best to cope.

This matters for leaders because your presence changes the energy around you. Calm lowers cost. Chaos increases cost. Predictability restores energy. Uncertainty drains it.

You do not have to be perfect. You just have to be aware.

Seeing People Through the Lens of Energy

When you understand energy, you stop taking things personally. You start seeing the nervous system behind the behavior. You ask different questions. You create workplaces where people can think again.

So here is my simple invitation. Pay attention to energy. Yours. Your team’s. Your clients’. Watch for dips. Watch for signals. Watch for the moments when a glass of water would solve more than another meeting.

Your brain is always asking the same question. Can I afford this. When you understand that question, you start seeing people in a completely different light. You catch things you used to miss. You lead with more clarity. You respond with more wisdom. And that shift is what it means to be Neuro Informed and this is how we build Neuro Nation!