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HomeSPECIAL GUESTAndronicus Michael Torp: Increasing energy levels leads to high performance in team...

Andronicus Michael Torp: Increasing energy levels leads to high performance in team management.

Andronicus Michael Torp, Ph.D., is a highly skilled performance and well-being expert based in Copenhagen, Denmark, currently located in Romania. He has built a notable career around the intersection of human performance and well-being, with a mission to enhance corporate productivity through data-driven HR strategies and wellness initiatives.

With a Ph.D. focused on wellness and the human energy profile, Andronicus leverages his expertise to help individuals and organizations improve energy levels, reduce stress, and achieve a healthier work-life balance.

Andronicus’s career spans a wide range of roles, including Head of People and Partnerships at Kinderpedia, where he developed and led HR strategies aimed at fostering a positive workplace culture and enhancing employee relations. His contributions also extend to academia, where he serves as an Associate Professor at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, guiding MBA students in human resources while advancing research in performance and well-being.

His diverse skill set is complemented by an impressive linguistic capability, being fluent in multiple languages, including Danish, English and Romanian, among others. Furthermore, he is certified in key areas such as performance indicators and wellness sciences, underscoring his commitment to continuous learning.

With experience across industries, from publishing to human resources, his strategic insights and hands-on expertise make him a sought-after consultant and coach. His ultimate ambition is to become the world’s leading expert in performance and wellness, driving tangible business results through employee well-being.

C&B: You emphasize the importance of energy levels in personal success. How do you integrate this concept into people management strategies within teams?

Andronicus Torp: A team consists of individuals. In order to have a successful, high-performing team it is essential that each of the individuals in the team, and thus the team as a whole, has a high level of energy.
What is important to realize that our level of energy is an outcome of our lifestyle. In order for anybody to be able to deliver sustainable top performance it is important for that person to have a lifestyle that is healthy and that constantly increases that person’s energy, instead of, as it is the case for most people in our culture, deplete it. There is a saying that goes like this: “Genes load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger”. Yes, some people just seem to have won the genetic (and energetic) lottery, yet for the rest of us healthy nutrition, high-quality sleep, adequate exercise, as well as emotional, financial, and mental well-being is important. We include financial well-being because to many people their financial situation is a factor of stress, which diminishes their energy level.

Thus, the more energised the individual team member is, the more successful the team can become.

C&B: How do you view the role of emotional energy in managing teams, and how can leaders better harness it to improve performance?

Andronicus Torp: To answer your question, I’ll first explain the scientific basis of our conflict resolution approach. According to Einstein, everything in the universe is made up of energy. This includes the chair you’re sitting on, the phone you’re reading this on, your body, your feelings, and even your thoughts. According to physics, there are four forces that govern this energy, one of which is electromagnetism. Electromagnetism is fundamental to chemistry and biology. It provides a deeper understanding of human nature, as we are biological beings with a chemical level yet this is based on our electromagnetic level.

Similar to electronic devices, our “battery” (electromagnetic field) can be more or less charged. The more charged it is, the longer we can function effectively. Scientists like Dr. Valerie V. Hunt from University of California, Los Angeles and Dr. William A. Tiller from Stanford University have conducted interesting studies on this. Dr. Motoyama from Japan, a renowned scientist recognized by UNESCO, discovered that we humans have seven distinct electromagnetic fields. Each field is connected to specific feelings, values, and behaviours.

Very shortly: The first level is associated with the physical body and material possessions. The second level relates to socializing and reproduction. The third level involves willpower, drive, and imposing one’s will. The fourth level is connected to empathy and love. We all possess all seven levels of energy, but some levels are more energized in certain individuals than others. This is what shapes our unique behaviour.

Emotional energy is the activation of the 4th of the 7 energy levels that we human beings have. It is connected with love, and empathy, and the people who have a lot of energy at this level are in general the people about whom we say that they „have soul” and whom we like to be together with because they make us feel good and we know that they care about us. Thus, a team leader who has a lot of energy at this level is much more qualified in leading others. S/he may not necessarily be the one with the most advanced technical knowledge, yet is for sure compensating many times over by making the team members feel good and secure, and thus creating the conditions for sustainable top-performance.

C&B: Your model speaks of proactive and reactive energy. How can managers shift employees from a reactive to a proactive state?

Andronicus Torp: Nobody can shift anybody else’s energy. However, a manager can create the conditions that allows a person to shift from a reactive to a proactive state. This for example by not micro-managing, yet instead trusting and thus allowing the employee to try, fail, and learn. Or, as William Blake wrote: „Fail again, fail better”. Nobody wants to be punished for experimenting with new strategies. If a manager does so anyway the employee will sooner or later (in most cases sooner) stop experimenting and just try to guess what the manager wants and then do that. This may have been an efficient strategy 50 years ago on the assembly line where – maybe – the manager had a more profound technical understanding than the employee, yet in today’s world where things evolve faster and managers have more people under them it is not a viable strategy.

C&B: You advocate for increasing energy to sustain success. What are the key strategies leaders can implement to foster long-term employee well-being?

Andronicus Torp: I am happy that you ask about „long-term well-being”, because there is a fundamental difference between short-term well-being and long-term well-being. Because many companies focus on the things that create short-term well-being and don’t even realize that long-term well-being is much more important. With short-term well-being I mean things like giving new iPhones, or having a social event with rich foods and drinks, going bowling and so on. Things that make people feel good now, yet may have unwanted long-term consequences.

Probably the most important key strategy that any leader can implement long-term employee well-being is to be an example to be followed! We all love „heroes” we can look up to for inspiration. If the leader sets an example of a healthy lifestyle that will allow her to deliver sustainable top performance for the rest of her life, then her employees may follow her example. If she doesn’t then for sure they will not.
I recall a nice experience with the CEO of a large and successful bank where Friday afternoon during the Board Meeting the CEO jumped up and left saying: „Oh my God, it is 16.00. I have to pick up the children at the kindergarten!”. From that exact moment the company culture changed and suddenly it was socially acceptable to have a harmonious Work/Life balance, which is part of long-term well-being.

Obviously, the leader can also subsidize, or even completely pay for, activities that lead to tong-term well-being. Physical activity may be the first thing that comes to mind for most people, yet also healthy nutrition is important. Here I have noticed a huge difference between the companies I work with in the Western countries versus the ones in Eastern Europe. I seriously cannot recall a single company I have worked with in for example Denmark that doesn’t provide a healthy, free lunch to their employees whereas in Romania my experience is that people, generally speaking, order fast food. The problems with fast food (please remember the saying: “Whoever put an ‘s’ in Fast Food is a marketing genius) is that it is hard to digest and thus lowers our energy levels because more energy is required for the digestion, it contains only empty calories, thus has no nutritional value, and it is very calory rich and thus may lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc. All of which is at conflict with our long-term well-being. One thing that always amuses me when I visit the companies, we work with is that they pay us to do an employee well-being program in order to help their employees become even more performant through having more energy, yet their vending machine is full of processed foods and beverages containing sugar. That is sending a very “mixed” message to their employees.

One company I truly admire is AXA Power (now ITWGSE) that is world leader in ground units to planes. They actually pay their employees to go running, or at least walking, 30 minutes per day during work hours, and then offer them a free healthy lunch afterwards. That is a company, and CEO, that truly cares about the employees and it pleases my soul to see that care reflects in the constantly improving financial results the company delivers.

C&B: In your work, how do you tailor performance improvement plans for individuals based on their unique energy levels?

Andronicus Torp: We don’t. Because we all have the same seven levels of energy. However, each individual has different goals so what we do is to sit down together and clarify these goals (normally we recommend having between 1 to maximum 3 goals at a time in order to have enough time to focus enough on them). Then, together, we create a structure, you may say lifestyle, that will lead to the person obtaining this goal. For example, if the goal is to become able to run a marathon, then we’ll ask what the person is capable of doing right now. Even if it is only to walk 15 minutes per day then we start with that, book a timeslot in the agenda every day for walking these 15 minutes, and then, maybe after 2 weeks, we meet again and decide if we can improve it to maybe 30 minutes. In this way we continue taking small steps until the day the person has obtained the goal. Then we establish a new goal and work towards that, step by step.

C&B: With your experience in athletic performance and corporate well-being, what lessons from sports can be applied to corporate team management?

Andronicus Torp: I’d say that most of the lessons from sports can be applied, in some cases with minor adjustments, to the corporate world.

Any athlete knows that “overtraining” leads to diminished performance. In the corporate world many people still seem to believe that “if you work 12 hours per day you accomplish 150% of what you accomplish if you work 8 hours per day”. That is not correct. In fact, scientific studies show that anybody who works even just 10 hours per day for two weeks only accomplishes what she previously accomplished in 8 hours. In other words, those extra working hours are not just wasted, they – probably – even have a negative impact on her emotional well-being through diminishing her time with her family. They may also diminish her physical, and thus cognitive, well-being because she no longer feels that she has time to do physical activity.

Another lesson from sports we can integrate in the corporate world is the importance of healthy nutrition in order to deliver. Yet as I have already touched upon this I will not repeat this.

In sports small breaks during the day, or match, are also known to have significant effects on the performance. However, in the corporate world we tend to believe that we need to work as much as possibly, only interrupted by the – possible – lunch break.

Many people in the corporate world would benefit from realizing that we are in fact “Corporate Athletes” and that we need to “rest as hard as we work” in order to be able to deliver sustainable top-performance.

C&B: How do you handle conflicts or energy drain within teams, and what techniques do you recommend for managers?
Andronicus Torp: Energy drain, something which interestingly enough many ask me about, can be prevented by having a strong, dynamic energy, and thus not entering into resonance with the person, or people, whom you feel drain your energy. A wise first step is of course to avoid the people whom you feel drain your energy, yet that may not always be possible. Thus, the best long-term strategy is for you to increase and preserve your own energy, for example through Yoga, Martial Arts, Tango, Swimming, Running, and also through having a healthy diet as much as possible avoiding processed foods, alcohol, tobacco, The more solar and dynamic you are, the less you’ll be affected from people trying, consciously or not, to drain your energy.

C&B: What role does energy play in employee motivation, and how can managers align individual energy levels with organizational goals?

Andronicus Torp: In Human Resources the is the following model: Performance = f(AMO). Thus, performance is a function of Ability, Motivation, and Opportunity. A person’s energy has a lot to do with his Ability to perform. Without any energy he wouldn’t even get out of the bed in the morning, much less perform at work. However, the 3rd out of our 7 different energy levels corresponds with drive, ambition, dynamism, pro-activity, etc. What we in the field call “Intrinsic motivation”. Thus, any person who activates this energy level will be motivated to work as much as is required. Exactly this level is activated through certain yoga techniques, Martial Arts, and running.

Thus, the more energy the individual has, especially at the third level, the more motivated she’ll be, and thus work hard to achieve the organizational goals.

C&B: In the context of virtual teams, how can leaders maintain high energy levels and productivity across dispersed groups?

Andronicus Torp: Everything I have written applies to any kind of team, including virtual teams. However, there is a synergy when people come together to work. The best a leader can do to maintain high energy levels and productivity across dispersed groups is to be an example and to help each individual team member to create a lifestyle that leads to constantly increasing energy levels.

C&B: How do you see leadership evolving in the future, particularly in the context of managing diverse energy levels within organizations?

Andronicus Torp: Even today leaders also have to manage diverse energy levels within organizations. What I hope for is that people will realize that being a leader differs from being a manager because the leader shows the way through personal example. I also hope that we, as a species, will become more holistic in our approach to for example success and realize that “success” in one domain of life, at the cost of utter failure in other domains, like healthy, social relations, family, happiness, isn’t “success” at all yet a very one-dimensional approach to life.

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