Team Resilience Energy Check
Make the team jointly responsible for noticing and lifting depleted energy
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
The energy check shifts resilience from an individual burden to a shared team responsibility. On a recurring cadence, each person states where their energy is and what is bringing it down. Before beginning, the team establishes a social contract to listen, care, and appropriately help lift one another's energy. The response is not automatically to remove every difficult task or solve every personal problem. Sometimes understanding and empathy are sufficient; elsewhere, teammates can redistribute work, offer assistance, or follow up after an important event. Recording responsible follow-ups prevents the exercise from becoming performative. The mechanism is mutual awareness coupled with proportionate support, allowing the leader to stop playing sole fixer while the team develops the habit of having each other's backs.
Origin
Keith Ferrazzi described the monthly energy check as a practice for moving from individual resilience to team resilience on The Jasmine Star Show.
Core principles
- 01Resilience does not have to rest on the individual alone
- 02Understanding a problem can help even when it cannot be removed
- 03Teams should notice and follow up on what drains colleagues
- 04Support can include empathy, practical help, or resource reorientation
- 05The goal is to lift energy, not force constant positivity
How to run it
- 1
Set the Social Contract
Agree that the team will listen respectfully, protect appropriate privacy, and help lift one another's energy. Clarify that disclosure is not an invitation to judge performance.
Pro tip Let team members help define the boundaries.
Watch out Do not pressure people to reveal sensitive details.
- 2
Check the Energy Level
Ask each person to state where their energy currently sits and what is pulling it down. Keep the round concise enough to remain sustainable.
Pro tip Use the same simple prompt every month.
Watch out Avoid turning the round into competitive suffering.
- 3
Listen Before Fixing
Acknowledge what was shared and determine whether the person wants empathy, ideas, or practical help. Do not assume every burden must be removed.
Pro tip Ask what kind of response would be useful.
Watch out Immediate problem-solving can make people feel unheard.
- 4
Invite Team Support
Allow colleagues to offer assistance, resource adjustments, or a later check-in. Keep responsibility distributed rather than routing every issue to the leader.
Pro tip Favor voluntary, specific offers over vague assurances.
Watch out Do not make colleagues responsible for professional care they cannot provide.
- 5
Follow Through
Record suitable commitments and revisit them after the relevant event or at the next check. Notice whether recurring drains indicate a systemic work problem.
Pro tip Assign one owner to each practical follow-up.
Watch out Failure to follow up turns expressions of care into empty theater.
In the wild
During the monthly energy check, a colleague shares that an upcoming biopsy is affecting her concentration. The team listens without demanding details, records that someone will call the following week, and offers practical coverage where useful.
→ The colleague receives humane support without the leader pretending to solve the underlying problem.
An employee says a necessary recurring task is draining. The team first acknowledges the strain, then considers whether part of the work can be redistributed, streamlined, or used to train another teammate rather than expecting the leader to remove it completely.
→ The burden is reduced while essential work and accountability remain intact.
Common mistakes
Fixing Every Disclosure
Sharing a problem may be a request for understanding rather than intervention. Ask what support is wanted before redesigning the role.
Forcing Positivity
The goal is to meet people at their real energy and help them avoid further decline, not demand an inspirational performance.
Ignoring the Follow-Up
Listening without later action can weaken trust, especially when the team explicitly promised support.
Is it for you?
Best for
Teams that need stronger mutual care and sustainable performance during demanding or uncertain periods.
Not ideal for
Teams lacking privacy boundaries or psychological safety around personal disclosure.
From the transcript
“there's a simple thing called an energy check, a practice where every month the team goes around and says, here's where my energy is and…”
“because someone sharing their problem doesn't mean you have to fix it.”
“It means that they want you to empathize. They want you to understand, they want you to feel. And that could be perfectly enough.”
From the episode
Building Teams That Win: How Relationships Fuel Success with Keith Ferrazzi
Keith Ferrazzi