Why I Use the Energy Leadership Index® (ELI) in My Coaching
- Susy Rudkin
- Apr 2
- 3 min read
Updated: 12 hours ago
One of the challenges with coaching is that we don't always recognise the patterns influencing how we think, feel and respond.
We know we're overthinking. We know we're stressed. We know we keep doubting ourselves or reacting in ways we'd rather not.
But we may not understand what's driving those reactions — or why the same patterns keep appearing.
That's one reason I use the Energy Leadership Index® (ELI) in my coaching.
What is the Energy Leadership Index®?
The ELI is an assessment that helps us explore how you typically perceive and respond to life, particularly when you're experiencing stress, pressure or challenge.
Unlike a personality assessment, it isn't designed to tell you who you are or put you into a particular box.
Instead, it gives us a snapshot of the energetic patterns influencing how you're currently experiencing and responding to your life.
That's an important distinction because these patterns aren't fixed.
What does “energy” actually mean?
When I talk about energy in this context, I'm not talking about how physically energetic you feel.
Energy Leadership looks at the relationship between how we perceive, think, feel and respond.
For example, imagine receiving an unexpected critical email.
One person might immediately think:
I've done something wrong.
Another:
How dare they speak to me like that?
Another:
I don't like this, but let me understand what's happened before I respond.
The circumstance may be identical, but the internal experience — and therefore the response — can be very different.
Energy Leadership provides a framework for becoming more aware of those differences.
The Seven Levels of Energy
The Energy Leadership framework describes seven levels of energy, ranging from more catabolic responses to increasingly anabolic ones.
Catabolic energy tends to be constricting or draining and can show up through reactions such as fear, self-doubt, frustration, conflict or resistance.
Anabolic energy tends to be more constructive and expansive, creating greater access to perspectives such as acceptance, compassion, opportunity and conscious choice.
Neither is about labelling emotions as “good” or “bad”.
We all move between different levels, and different circumstances can bring out very different responses in us.
The value lies in becoming aware of where you tend to go, particularly under stress, and what effect that has on your experience and choices.
Why I find the ELI so useful
Without that awareness, it's easy to focus entirely on the presenting problem:
I need to stop overthinking.
I need more confidence.
I need to stop worrying what other people think.
I need to set better boundaries.
Those are important concerns, but I want to understand what's happening underneath them.
The ELI gives us a useful starting point.
Rather than spending weeks trying to work out where to begin, your results can highlight patterns we may want to explore together and help us ask better questions.
What changes when you're under stress?
Where do you tend to lose access to choice?
What beliefs or interpretations might be contributing to that?
Where are you already responding in ways that serve you well?
It gives us a personalised map — not a verdict about who you are.
The assessment is only the beginning
This is probably the most important part.
Completing the ELI doesn't change you.
Awareness alone doesn't create lasting change. The value comes from what you do with what you discover.
During your ELI debrief, we'll explore your results together and consider how the
patterns reflected in them may be showing up in your actual life.
From there, the invitation is to become curious.
To notice those patterns as they happen.
To experiment with different responses.
And to discover through your own direct experience what changes when you begin bringing greater awareness and choice into situations that previously felt automatic.
That's where the ELI fits particularly well with the way I coach.
I'm not interested in giving you a report that tells you who you are. I'm interested in helping you use the information as a starting point for greater self-awareness, choice and self-trust.
Can I take the ELI without having coaching?
Yes.
I offer the Energy Leadership Index® as a standalone assessment with a private two-hour debrief, so you can use it simply to gain a deeper understanding of your own patterns.
For clients undertaking one of my longer coaching programmes, I may also use the ELI at the beginning of our work to provide a personalised starting point for the coaching that follows.
Or, if you're not sure whether the ELI or coaching would be more useful for you:
No pressure. No obligation. Just a conversation.
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