Episode 55: Energy by design: how teams can rethink burnout and focus in the age of distraction - with Rich Ellis
Published on 21 October 2025 • Hosted by Dr Lisa Colledge
Energy is a great way to see where your team’s performance is leaking.
If you want to go further, my free Performance Leaks Audit helps you explore how well your team can work in relation to their neurostyles.
When people burn out, we often treat it as a personal weakness, but often it’s a design issue.
Energy gets spent everywhere except where it matters most.
Health and energy coach Rich Ellis works with everyone from software teams to construction crews, helping them rebuild their energy patterns so they are sustainable. His message is simple: stop managing time, start managing energy.
Ancient wiring, modern overload
Our nervous system runs on two automatic settings:
Sympathetic - fight, flight, focus.
Parasympathetic - rest, digest, restore.
That wiring kept our ancestors alive when they experienced short bursts of danger.
But in today’s “always on” culture, we trigger that same response through deadlines, emails, and constant notifications - our system built for survival is now running closer to 24/7.
The red-flag signals
One of Rich’s diagnostics is sleep latency: how quickly you fall asleep.
If you’re out cold the moment your head hits the pillow, that’s not efficiency; it’s exhaustion.
Other subtle cues include rushed speech, short tempers, and attention that scatters instead of focusing.
These are the subtle signs of energy mismanagement, and they show up in teams long before burnout headlines appear.
From drain to design
Rich’s first step with any group is deceptively simple:
“Ask everyone, where’s your energy - out of ten?”
That conversation alone can reveal whether the problem is workload, leadership habits, or cultural friction.
Then he helps teams design daily rhythms that enable the, to recover and build in resililence for when they need to push - shorter bursts, better nutrition, and movement that supports rather than depletes.
Yes, more exercise isn’t always better, as Rich found out to his cost; sometimes it’s the stress multiplier.
What you can do this week
Get morning daylight to anchor your body clock and sharpen natural focus.
Replace “work–life balance” with energy rhythm - periods of push and pause.
Use downtime to look outward, not at a screen; your brain resets when your eyes focus far away.
When leaders design for sustainable energy, they unlock the best of themselves and of every style in their team - focused, calm, or fast-thinking - without burning people out.
Find out more, and connect with Rich here:
