Set point theory has generally been applied to the subject of weight loss.  It’s an attempt for nutritionists and dietitians to effectively explain body diversity based on our unique biological blueprint.  It is essentially a natural baseline, a starting point, from which we shift and move.  It’s considered a negative thing to attempt to shift your set point in this traditional, health-related context.

However, there is a different approach to set point theory that can actually prove to be valuable when it comes to shifting energy levels, both for internal wellbeing and for a more outward-focused improvement in public speaking skills.  I’ll define set point, for the purpose of this article, as your own unique starting point or way of being.  This would apply to energy levels as well as communication abilities.

For example: in terms of energy, your natural energetic set point may be a victim consciousness.  This would look like waking up daily with an expectation that things will go wrong, nothing will go your way, you can’t change anything about the inevitable, etc.  Anyone trapped in that set point would and should desire to raise their energy level to one of responsibility instead: where you see yourself as the creator of your life rather than the experiencer of it.  Life would become what you make it — as opposed to something that is happening TO you.

It’s the same type of thing with a communication set point. The average speaker speaks at a logical, detailed level. They give too many facts, tend to ramble and offer no language to help the audience connect and relate to what they are saying on an emotional level. Through my Women in Leadership Training, I’ve discovered many women speak this way because they feel a need to prove they are smart and/or even if they have strategic roles, they are often so bogged down in executing the details of the work, that's the place they naturally speak from - the details. They need to raise their communication set point (aka their default way of speaking) to a higher, more strategic and visionary level in order to be seen as leaders.  

If you’ve been around here long, you already know how passionate I am about women in leadership — how helping them own their story, step into their power, and speak with authority are key components of my brand.  Before I go into shifting set points, I want to point out a few things I’ve observed about many highly successful women:

• They habitually undervalue their achievements. So, when a woman said she did something “relatively well,” you can probably multiply that by three.

• While it’s a great quality to be humble, if you don’t think your achievements are that great, I won’t either. Sad to say, but I’ve noticed how affected I am by the way others talk up or talk down about their achievements. If you tell me “it wasn’t that good really,” I’m more likely to agree.

• It seems that women face a double-bind: when they don’t tell others their achievements, no one else can have knowledge of what they’ve done. When they do, they can feel like they are being boastful (or others will interpret it that way) – a characteristic that can make women feel judged and unpopular.

Truth be told: I want to hear my female friends and clients talk themselves up because it EXPANDS MY WORLD. It shows me what’s possible. It gives me something to celebrate. And, crucially, it gives me permission to be a little more courageous in talking about my own achievements.  This type of approach to success is a booster to creating and choosing confidence, another cornerstone of my brand.  When you are able to own and celebrate all of your W’s (and those of others around you), you can increase the confidence you have in yourself — and that can’t help but come out.

Humility and ‘boasting’ can go hand in hand, if we only get the ego out of the way. When ego is at play, everything is about you, so boasting only feels self-serving. But when you put the ego aside for a minute, you understand that it isn’t boasting at all. Held with grace and humor, ‘boasting’ helps others to know how to connect with you, how to empathize with you, how to understand your back story, and how to relate to you. And it gives them permission to admire you.

When we determine our set point — energetically or with communication — we are diagnosing ourselves in an attempt to raise our own levels of performance, self-awareness, and achievements.  Shifting a set point enables us to increase our confidence by sharing our win’s, allow for failures with forgiveness and kindness, and then present that “elevated” person to the world… or just to your next virtual business meeting participants.

So, if your set point is your natural way of being (or even where you are NOW), how can you take practical, action steps to raise it?  And how do you even know where you are?  Good news!  There IS an entire system designed to help pinpoint your set point (and even give it a name) and then begin the process to interpret that diagnosis and begin to raise it.  And by raise it, I mean shift that set point UP UP UP — not just one level, but many.

Enter the Energy Leadership Index Assessment (ELI).  Unlike Myers Briggs, DiSC, and Enneagram, the ELI is an attitudinal assessment tool that captures how an individual currently perceives and approaches work and life.  It measures how you see and interact with the world—under “normal” circumstances and when you’re stressed. 

It’s not about your strengths, weaknesses or personality traits. It provides a snapshot of your current perception and attitude towards life as well as your behavioral patterns and belief-system. It has been tested and approved by thousands of individuals as well as numerous Fortune 500 companies.

While traditional assessments are valuable tools that can help you understand your strengths, embrace your weaknesses, and discover how you can work to your full potential, they typically support a “work with what you have” approach to adapting your behavior and pursuing personal excellence. The ELI, on the other hand, reveals the kind of energy you’re giving off: catabolic or anabolic. Catabolic energy is negative and destructive while anabolic is positive and constructive. 

If you’re ready to shift your set point, the ELI is the perfect first step!  Find out where you are, consider where you want to be, and determine what you need to do to make it happen.  Change is possible.  You do NOT have to stay stuck in catabolic energy, victimhood, worry, self-doubt, and fear — all of the things that hinder your personal as well as professional growth and success.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ELI AND SCHEDULE YOUR ASSESSMENT HERE.