Do not underestimate the power of sleep
Opinion
Focusing on sleep is a key factor in building resilience for increasingly exhausted leaders. It doesn’t cost anything to develop good sleeping practices and it is within our control.
I’m often asked to give top tips on leadership and how best to ensure resilience during turbulent times. Without fail, one of the things I always say is never to underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep.
It usually gets a laugh. I suspect because it is not something that ever features in the many books about leadership and it sounds like the sort of thing your mother said to you as a child.
But the longer I work as a coach, observing as I do how increasingly exhausted senior executives are, the more convinced I am that focusing on sleep is a key factor in building resilience.
News, analysis, comment and community — Join The Media Leader
Well-understood benefits
There is a reason we are designed to sleep.
It allows your body and mind to recharge, leaving you refreshed and alert when you wake up. Healthy sleep helps the body remain healthy and stave off diseases. Without enough sleep, the brain can’t function properly, impairing your ability to concentrate, think clearly and process memories.
Sleep helps people regulate their emotions and better manage the physical and psychological effects of stress. It supports sound judgement, good decision-making and other important executive functions.
The overnight test
When I was global brand director at Aviva, I noticed that my team would often share problems with me at the end of the day. I was known to use “the morning-after test” before making a final decision. I would have my response in the moment, but usually a better idea the following morning.
In fact, the ritual of having a bath in the morning became vital reflection time. I now understand that sleeping on a problem gave me the opportunity to process it, calm my emotions and gain a better perspective.
That’s before mentioning having more energy and feeling more up for whatever the challenge we were dealing with.
A productivity issue
One of the things we need to manage is our own productivity. That is, the effectiveness of our effort or how much work we deliver in a particular period.
Essentially, it is about getting more done in a given time frame with the same or fewer resources. It is a concept that is most typically applied to the production of goods and services at an organisational level, but we would do well to apply it to ourselves.
As we get tired, not only do we make poorer judgements, find it harder to regulate our emotions and tend to feel irritable, but we are much slower. Diminishing returns set in: the more we do, the less we achieve.
So, rather than keeping on working, we are better off stopping, having a proper rest and returning to what we were doing the next day. We will be much faster and make fewer mistakes.
Attending to sleep
One of the culprits is undoubtably the relentless flow of work emails and the unspoken demand that colleagues respond promptly.
It is a reason I am a big fan of the concept of “the right to switch off” pledged by the UK government. I understand it is no longer being actively pursued as a policy, but the idea was to legislate to ensure that employers don’t make unnecessary contact with staff outside work hours, thereby creating a clear distinction between work and home life.
But there is nothing to stop us from taking it on board ourselves and generating agreements as to where we feel boundaries can be put in place to protect people’s private time and ability to take breaks from work.
Anyone who receives an email from me may notice that my sign-off reads: “I am one of those people who likes to work more flexibly. I’m sending this email now because it suits how I balance my working hours. So I don’t expect that you will read, respond to or action this email outside of the hours that work for you.”
It is such a simple message and you would be amazed how many people express their appreciation.
I wish I could say it was my idea. But it was something I came across when I was global inclusion director and we were discussing the challenge of working in a company where one of our offices was legitimately working, 24 hours a day.
It created a pressure for colleagues who wanted to be helpful but needed permission to ignore emails they received from the Toronto office during the evening or just as they wanted to head to bed.
Our own worst enemy
Devices and TVs in the bedroom, too much coffee and alcohol in the hours before sleep, not enough exercise and no regular sleep schedule all get in the way. Most of us know we aren’t helping ourselves but do it anyway.
Having a drink after work with friends and colleagues is fun and in the short term seems to relieve stress. But we need to help ourselves by taking the business of sleep seriously and try to develop good routines that help us sleep.
Obviously, if you are someone who has to travel a lot with work, entertain clients in the evenings or start early for a long commute, that can be enormously disruptive to good practices.
But perhaps it means you have to be even more rigorous about how you mitigate the impact of your working lifestyle. For example, most clients don’t notice or care if you don’t drink alcohol during an evening event.
It’s in your hands
The good news is that it doesn’t cost any money to develop a plan for good sleeping practices and it is entirely within our control.
We can make sure our home bedroom environment is cool, dark, quiet and comfortable. We can choose to avoid alcohol, nicotine and caffeine in the hours before bed, as well as electronic devices with screens one hour before.
For those who struggle with jet lag, exposure to natural light — especially in the morning — is helpful, as is keeping well-hydrated. And if you can manage to fit in some regular exercise, even a walk in the fresh air rather than a full workout will make a difference.
As with so many things, when we are feeling overwhelmed with our workload and the pace is relentless, just keeping going seems like an easier option than stepping away or opting out entirely by sleeping.
But, believe me, you will get more done, to a higher standard, after a good night’s sleep. And if you aspire to be an effective leader, your wellbeing is a legitimate part of your toolkit.
Jan Gooding is one of the UK’s best-known brand marketers, having worked with Aviva, BT, British Gas, Diageo and Unilever. She is now an executive coach and is also chair of Pamco and Utopia. She writes for The Media Leader each month.