Energy the currency of personal productivity: after working with world-class sports athletes, Jim Loehr has turned his focus to "corporate athletes," saying he's changed his thinking about who is the quintessential example of toughness and grace under pressure.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: Performance psychologist

When it comes to personal productivity, businesses are simply not getting what they pay for, what they expect or what they can expect from both general staff, as well as from their highpaid senior executives. That's the belief of performance psychologist Jim Loehr, who says a big issue affecting performance in today's corporate America is workforce disengagement. Corporations invest millions of dollars to recruit and train people, and then find they are not getting the full return on their investment. Even while working longer and harder than ever, corporations and individuals are not reaping the rewards, he says, due to mismanagement of a precious resource: energy.

"Energy is the currency that makes business happen," says Loehr, cofounder of LGE Performance Systems in Orlando, Fla., who for over 25 years has worked with world-class sports athletes, as well as with corporate leaders, FBI hostage rescue teams and emergency room personnel.

Results from The Gallup Organization's numerous studies and research by Loehr's firm are similar. The data indicates that one in four people are "'fully engaged" in their work, while three out of four are not. Fifty-five percent are "not engaged," and 19 percent of corporate America's population is actively "disengaged," meaning they are so out of sync with what's happening that they are really working at opposition to what the corporate mission might be.

Gallup estimates the annual cost for the category of "disengagement" to be a minimum of $250 billion to $350 billion. Most disengagers are said to be managerial--bad managers breed disengagement. It could be the insensitivity of a boss, or not having the tools needed to do a job or not enough growth opportunities. But, Loehr, comments, "Even if the things are in place that fully engage an individual, you just kind of get to the baseline; you stop disengagement, but you don't get people fully engaged."

The key component for full engagement, he explains, is in understanding energy and its management. "We virtually have no energy management tools," Loehr argues--until now. He notes a growing recognition in his belief, "if you don't have energy, time doesn't mean a whole lot." While we can't expand time, we can expand energy, and we can do it efficiently and effectively, he says, when we understand how energy is metabolized and produced in the human system.

Historically, wellness and health programs have been viewed as "perks"--as an expense to a company--and...