Subjective Vitality in Leadership: Why the Best Leaders Lead from Aliveness

I know what it’s like to feel awake, alive, full of vitality. 

I feel it riding a tandem bike with my husband or hiking in a forest, fully immersed in nature. I feel it eating at a Michelin star restaurant, completely absorbed in every flavor of each course. I felt it last summer in an outdoor concert at the Denver Botanic Gardens, watching the musician Jacob Collier perform.

It turns out psychologists have an exact name for this feeling: subjective vitality. 

I came across the term recently in a newsletter from my colleague, Mandy Lehto. She wrote about how it translates to the experience of being alive, energized, and fully engaged with life. 

The moment I read it, I knew exactly what she meant because I have felt subjective vitality many times, even though she taught me the name for it. 

Watching Jacob Collier that night in Denver, what I remember wasn’t his mastery or even the songs he performed. Plenty of people are technically excellent at what they do. 

It was how he was lit up from within, in total creation and flow. The music bringing out his joy and sense of wonder. I remember how it made me feel - awake, alive, and full of gratitude.

That is not only a description of a great performer. It’s also a description of what leaders look like when they’re performing at their best, personally and professionally. 

The Importance of Aliveness 

When I ask my clients, most leaders can’t name a recent time they felt subjective vitality. They might be able to share a memory, but usually it’s something from their past.

They are used to managing innovation and growth like a checklist. Identify the opportunity, assign the initiative, measure the outcome. That works, but only to a point. 

This approach will never produce the type of energy Jacob Collier brought to his performance, because a checklist has no room for innovation, creativity, wonder or awe. That energy comes from somewhere else entirely different: being fully present in the moment. 

The most alive leaders are the ones who protect time for the experiences that remind them what it feels like to be fully engaged with life, and then bring that vitality back into how they lead.

I see this constantly with the executives I coach. When we start working together, most have regret that the last time they felt subjective vitality has been ages ago. 

They have optimized their calendars to stay busy and productive, with almost no time left for what actually brings them joy or makes them feel fully present and alive. Once we start coaching together, that changes. They reprioritize, protect time for the meaningful experiences that bring them back to life, and start noticing the difference it makes in how they lead.

I invite you to ask yourself the same questions I ask them. What were you doing the last time you felt fully alive and energized? How long ago was that?

Subjective Vitality and Struggle

While you sit with this question, remember: 

Leaders who experience subjective vitality are rarely people who have had it easy. It’s important to understand that aliveness and struggle are not opposites. You can, and likely will, have both. 

The real truth of leadership, and of living, is learning to hold both the challenges and the aliveness at the same time. That is not something most leaders figure out alone.

This is where a coach comes into play. A confidential sounding board by your side who helps you identify what actually makes you feel alive, and helps you protect your time for even while you are navigating real issues.

Where The Horizon Meets You

Joseph Campbell once said that what we are really chasing in life is not meaning. It is what he called the “rapture of being alive.” I credit Mandy for putting that quote back in front of me at exactly the right time.

Where do you feel that in your own leadership and life? Not in the results you produce, but in the actual experience of your work and your life outside of work. If you find this difficult to answer, it’s time for a change. 

Because achievement alone rarely creates that feeling. Full presence does.

The leaders who build something extraordinary are the ones who have found their way back to genuine aliveness, and who lead from that place.

If you are ready to explore what that looks like for you, I invite you to join me for a Connection Call.