Leverage Your Health as a Leader

So you’ve got your leadership skills dialed in. You’ve worked long and hard to get where you are today.

But are you feeling WELL, or are you sleep deprived and constantly irritable?

Is your body capable of moving as freely as you want to, or have you found yourself stiffening up?

Do you have the focus and creativity you need to innovate and lead through the next decade, or are you foggy and lethargic at your desk?

Leaders often take care of everybody except themselves. We’re on a mission to change that.

Dr. Theresa was a guest on the Your Next Mission podcast on April 30, 2024 to talk about how leaders can leverage their wellbeing as a competitive advantage in the business space.

Watch the full podcast to dive into the details and  keep reading below for the highlights.

1. Your health affects how you work. Own it.

Dr. T shared a powerful story about how a hyperfocus on leadership performance and an unhealthy relationship to fitness left her ignoring her own well-being and her health. The unfortunate paradox here is that good leadership requires a healthy, agile mind and a healthy stress response, NOT a sleep-deprived (or nutrient-deprived) brain and reactivity under stress.

No matter how you slice it, when you’re not eating well, not sleeping well, not moving for most of the day, and emotionally unwell, your work performance suffers.

Take sleep for example: Poor sleep slashes your ability to think clearly, to carefully weigh options, and to resolve relational conflict with others. It renders you irritable, reactive, and unfocused.

Now let’s look at movement: there’s no way around it– sitting at a desk creates lethargy and slows our metabolism. But a 10 minute bout of exercise, even walking, can boost creativity by 30% and can quickly restore focus.

Small tweaks to your lifestyle can add up over time to keep you mentally sharp, calm under pressure, and living in a body that moves and functions optimally.

2. Leaders and managers MUST be engaged in order to create a culture of well-being.

We’ve worked with thousands of individuals across hundreds of teams and the unfortunate reality is that leaders and employees alike often fall off track when it comes to their pursuit of health habits. Alas we’re only human, and there’s only so much an individual can do in isolation.

Organizational leadership and management support is what makes the difference: imagine being in a workplace where nobody takes a lunchtime walk versus a workplace where your manager stops by your desk and asks if you’ve gotten your morning steps in yet.

In fact, the way a team leader works often sets the expectation for what “good work” looks like. . .whether that’s long days at the computer or frequent breaks to recharge the mind and body. With the well-established benefits of wellness practices on focus, creativity, and productivity it’s almost surprising that management champions such long hours at the desk as evidence of a “good worker.”

Our trainings help leadership teams go “all-in” on their own well-being…which empowers and gives their people permission to do the same.

3. Your self care impacts how well you handle the hard hits.

Dr. T shared how prioritizing her own well-being helped her to handle the hard hits that came at her in her own life, including grieving the loss of her mother from childhood and the loss of her father in adulthood.

Indeed, none of us are immune to life throwing us curveballs. And those curveballs will hit us harder and keep us down for longer if we aren’t physically or mentally fit.

Take stress for example. Stress dampens our immune system. Now imagine that you have a big presentation coming up that you have to travel for. Your ability to manage your stress ahead of the presentation may make the difference between catching a cold on the plane or arriving healthy and energized.

So let’s imagine that presentation goes poorly anyway…now your emotional well-being will impact whether you get stuck in a hole of self-pity and coping mechanisms or whether you quickly pivot to a growth mindset, capitalize on the lessons learned and move forward.

Build a resilient body and a resilient mind to handle the hard hits that are undoubtedly coming your way.

How to dive deeper?

At Movement Rx, we are in the business of creating teams that lead and work better from a place of wellbeing. Because if you don’t make time for your wellbeing now, you’ll have to make time for disease later. Let us help your team build and leverage their well-being.

Email: wellness@movement-rx.com to connect with Dr. T and her team.