Back to news overview

Getting enough sleep is crucial for effective leadership | NPM Capital

News
Date
August 9, 2018
Getting enough sleep is crucial for effective leadership | NPM Capital

No less than 43 percent of top managers do not get enough sleep at least four nights a week. This is revealed in a survey of nearly 200 business leaders conducted by two Dutch McKinsey consultants. This permanent lack of sleep also has a demonstrably negative effect on the four most important leadership qualities: solving problems effectively, operating with a strong results orientation, seeking different perspectives and supporting others.

Given the strong relationship between the performance of a company’s managers and the performance of the company itself, McKinsey believes it is crucially important that managers get enough sleep. The survey also shows that this is not solely a matter of personal responsibility. 36 percent of those surveyed say that getting enough sleep is not a priority at their companies. 47 percent say they suffer from being expected to respond to emails and telephone calls 24/7. And no less than 83 percent say they have never received any form of training on the importance of getting enough sleep through their company.

McKinsey consequently recommends in the report that companies introduce a specially developed training programme to raise the level of awareness of the importance of sufficient sleep. This will require a cultural change at many companies, with sufficient sleep being promoted and insufficient sleep being discouraged. This can be done by paying better attention to travel itineraries (jetlag), introducing a stricter email policy (by making switching off email at home or on holiday mandatory for example), planning teamwork in different time zones more effectively and setting maximum working hours.

Preventing burn-out

Apart from improving business performance, there is another compelling argument for getting more sleep: preventing burn-outs. In fact, a recent study of Harvard Medical School shows that no less than 96 percent of the surveyed senior business leaders have experienced (some form of) a burn-out at least once during his or her career. One out of three of those surveyed had even suffered a severe burn-out.

McKinsey says there is extensive proof that stress and a lack of sleep reinforce each other. Less sleep leads to more stress, more stress makes it more difficult to sleep. A lack of sleep also causes less engagement at work. There are even studies that reveal that employees are less engaged if their leaders have had a bad night’s sleep.

Learning behaviour is also strongly connected with sleep. While we are sleeping, we retrieve information from our memory, make new connections and ‘code’ new information. These are essential processes for learning to see new perspectives. The phenomenon of tunnel vision can also be prevented through sufficient sleep, as can bias (mental shortcuts) in decision-making processes. The authors say the value of ‘sleeping on something’ is consequently confirmed by science.

 

 

NPM - Sfeer - 173 - clara tafel

Join our newsletter to stay informed of the most relevant updates