Impact of Leadership Recovery Activity
Harvard Business Review reports that leadership development programs cost global organizations about $60 billion per year, with only about 10% of that yielding concrete results.
That was in February. Then in April, along comes a University of Florida study about one thing that makes a difference and doesn’t cost anything at all.
This study found that leaders who put down their work at night experienced what the authors refer to as a recovery period. The recovery period resulted in feeling more energized and better about their own leadership. And there is more.
Science Daily quoted one of the authors of this study:
What we found is that on nights when leaders were able to completely turn off and not think about work, they were more energized the next day, and they felt better connected to their leadership role at work. On those same days, their followers reported that these leaders were more effective in motivating them and in guiding their work.
Another study makes the obvious point that recovery has been shown to be good for employees too. Then again, it is hard to think of anyone for whom recovery would not be good. Still, their focus for this study was the impact of leader recovery on the leader-follower dyad.
And what they found was that leaders with previous night pleasurable recovery activity were seen as more effective in positively influencing employee well-being, creativity, and performance.
These are really terrific findings that I shared with a few of my clients this past week. They seemed surprised somehow at first, which raises the question about what people actually think leaders do with their evenings.
People might think that CEOs, for example, work ‘til they drop. And they might be right. From The Kickass Entrepreneur:
On average, a CEO clocks a whopping 62.5 hours per week. However, some of them spend even more than 100 hours, leaving very little time for sleeping. Plus, CEOs often bring their work back home, which keeps them busy at night. All this contributes to the tendency to cut sleeping hours for the good of the company.
In a previous post, I talked about Elite Sleepers who didn’t need more than 4-6 hours. Good for them. That post also talked about the link between going to bed anxious and getting up anxious. Here below from Dr. Elena Touroni of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic:
“For most people, the stress hormone cortisol is highest in the first hour upon waking, helping us to stay alert and focused in the morning,” says Elena. “However, going to bed feeling anxious can cause cortisol levels to spike too early, which might lead you to wake up with a racing mind. Blood sugar levels are also lower first thing in the morning, which can trigger anxiety for those who are prone to it.”
It is not ideal for anyone to get up dreading the day. Yet another very good reason for leaders to fill their evenings with something relaxing.
Pleasurable Recovery Activities
Different strokes for different folks. What helps one person disconnect from work might not work for another.
Activities such as cooking, reading, playing an instrument, listening to music, taking a walk, exercising, yoga, meditation…may or may not do it for you.
Maybe you just want to hang out and chat, watch a movie with family or friends; or just hang out with the characters on whatever TV show you happen to be into right now.
The key is to find something to help you relax, recover, and recharge your batteries to be all that you can be, for yourself and everyone counting on you, the very next day.
Start with something small, like turning off notifications at a certain time every night. And be sure to let people know you are doing this, so they won’t worry if you are okay.
It will also set a great example for them to do the same. As one client put it, there is something very cool and confident about conveying, “We got this and tomorrow is another day.”
Practice, practice, practice…and let us know what you find. And for help with this or something else, Contact Me at weissmadelaine@gmail.com
Warmly,
Madelaine
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