Why Good Leadership Requires Good Sleep

The link between sleep and leadership

Not too long ago, lack of sleep was a badge of odd honor. Sharing how late we worked or how early we woke up was a bit of a brag, a twisted sign of dedication and importance.

How sad that we were high-fiving over five hours of sleep! We know sleep loss contributes to poor judgment, impaired creativity, increased tension, and anxiety. Research shows that leaders who sleep less than 6 hours are 30% less decisive, and sleep-deprived leaders have a 50% diminished capacity for resolving team conflicts. Sleep loss also contributes to low job satisfaction (no surprise there).

The good news is that work places are much better now at addressing many aspects of wellbeing. We celebrate the walk-and-talk meetings, we encourage joining video fresh from a workout, we order more nutritious team lunches, we host webinars on burnout.

But sleep has been slow to rise and shine in our daily work dialogue. We no longer brag about getting little sleep (that’s good), but many of us (~45%) are still sleep deprived. We don’t mention our sleep loss at work since it can come across as a symbol of our own poor planning. It can signal we aren’t delegating well. We are disorganized. We don’t have control over our work. We are underwater in our role.

So while we aren’t bragging about sleep loss these days, we also aren’t raising our hands when we’re struggling with sleep loss.

If you’re struggling with sleep deprivation, think about one change that could make a meaningful difference? E.g., a conversation with your global team about setting time zone boundaries, hiring a maid, contracting with a meal service, blocking out time to think on your calendar to improve planning.

If you lead a team, be sure to include sleep in your wellness conversations and decisions.

“Sleep is the chief nourisher in life’s feast.” —Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Is Sleep our CNO: Chief Nourishing Officer?