As a leader of a company or team, you’ve got a lot on your plate. You have a lot of responsibilities, like managing employees’ schedules, their productivity, clients’ requests, reports, and leading projects, just to name a few. It can feel overwhelming, as if you can’t possibly balance one more thing.
That’s why your breakfast consists of the donuts and muffins in the breakroom. Your lunch is takeout from the nearest burger joint or Chinese restaurant. You get home and calm your stress with a carton of ice cream and a few pints of beer. You sip on soda or coffee all day because it’s the only thing that gives you the energy to tackle your never-ending to-do list.
But your doctor and spouse have been getting on you about your weight, your high cholesterol, your blood pressure, not to mention your stress levels. They’re all concerned about what these markers mean for your future health. They just don’t understand that your health isn’t your biggest concern right now. You need to focus on leading your team, growing the business, and meeting your numbers each quarter. Once those are all in place, then maybe you can start to focus on your health.
Except, what if I told you that the most important thing you can do as a leader is to improve your health? What if putting your health first meant that your team would be more productive, more creative, have clearer thinking and sharper focus? Improving your own well-being might improve the productivity of your employees, cut unnecessary expenses to the company, and please your spouse and doctor. Here’s how that can be the case.
Why Health Is Necessary for Improved Performance
If you’ve been following me for a while, it should come as no shock to you that the health of our body has a huge impact on the health of our brain, and thus our ability to be productive and perform optimally in our work. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, healthier employees are more productive (CDC, 2015).
Of course we understand how being sick and therefore absent from work can cause loss in production and expenses to the company, but what may be even more startling is the idea of presenteeism. Presenteeism is defined as “attending work when one is unwell” and very prevalent in the workplace, with up to 90% of questioned employees having admitted to engaging in this behavior (Lohaus et al., 2021). Productivity losses due to presenteeism, although difficult to quantify, are thought to be significantly higher than the productivity losses due to absenteeism, when employees stay home from work due to illness (Strömberg et al., 2017). Think of presenteeism as the employee who is physically sitting at their desk, but dealing with pain, allergies, gastric distress, brain fog, or an inability to focus. Although they are “at work,” they may as well be out to lunch. Researchers are suggesting that this phenomena can cut productivity by at least one third. And what makes it even more challenging is that leadership often cannot tell when it’s affecting their employees.
What contributes to an increased risk of presenteeism? An unhealthy lifestyle. According to a Well Being Assessment conducted by Healthways, employees who smoked, did not engage in regular physical activity, or who had an unhealthy diet were at a 28%, 50% and 66% increased risk for presenteeism, respectively (Merrill et al., 2012).
Beyond the idea of presenteeism, it may be impossible for some of your employees to reach their Peak mentally even if they aren’t “unwell”, due to chronic underlying health conditions. For example, Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is an extremely prevalent condition, with at least 88% of the population on their way to, or already suffering from this disorder (Araujo, Cai, & Stevens, 2018). This condition is one that affects the heart and artery systems, but also the brain. It has been shown that there are significant reductions in cognitive performance with each additional MetS criterion met (Yates et al., 2012). In the workplace, this might show up as poor memory, an inability to focus, slower processing speed, and reduced overall intellectual functioning.
Individuals with obesity are also at risk for not being able to reach their mental Peak. Obesity is associated with chronic inflammation, which is a cognitive killer (Makki et al., 2013). Chronic inflammation in the body leads to inflammation in the brain, which can result in brain fog, deficits in memory, reasoning, global cognition, executive functioning, alertness, and learning (Leigh & Morris, 2020, Marsland et al., 2015). Individuals who consumed a Western Style Diet, one that is high in saturated fats, simple sugars, and low in fiber and nutrients had impaired attention, processing speed, and mood after only 5 days of consuming this type of diet(Holloway et al., 2011). This is concerning, considering that a typical “Western Style Diet” makes up an average of 60% of calories consumed by many Americans. The work happy hours, break room donuts, and Uber Eats deliveries aren’t just harmful to the physical health of your employees, but they may be contributing to your employees not being as productive as they could be.
Gut disorders, of which up to 40% of the adult population can suffer from, may also be impeding an individual’s ability to perform optimally. When the gut is in a state of dysbiosis, it’s possible to experience a condition called leaky gut. This can lead to chronic inflammation, an increased risk for MetS, and because the gut has such an intricate relationship with the brain, cognitive performance challenges such as learning and memory deficits, mood disorders, and a dysregulated stress response (Cenit, Sanz & Codoner-French, 2017).
All of this to say that beyond “sick days”, an employee’s overall health is determining just how productive they are in the workplace. But what does this have to do with you as their leader?
Why Leaders Need to Focus on Their Health, First
In my work with leaders and business owners, I often use the analogy of the oxygen mask in a crashing airplane. At the beginning of every flight, the instructions are for parents to put their masks on before helping their children. It’s the same idea here, leaders should put their health first in order to help their employees place more priority on their own health and performance.
As a leader or business owner, you’re driving the ship. Your brain needs to be at its Peak in order to remember important details, focus sharply, manage your stress and emotions even when the going gets tough, be creative, logical, and productive every time you step foot in the office door (and, most of the time when you step foot out of it, too). All of these processes require a healthy gut, immune system, optimal nutritional status, and overall metabolic health. Without focusing on your health and optimizing your wellbeing, these processes will be impossible. A leader who isn’t performing at their Peak will inevitably have a team who isn’t, either.
Furthermore, your healthy habits can help to motivate your team to adopt a healthier lifestyle as well. According to the HERO report, when leaders are on-board with well-being initiatives in the workplace, employees are more likely to improve their health. The results are even greater when leaders themselves participate in the wellbeing initiatives (Grossmeier & Noeldner, 2020).
It goes without saying that as a leader, you’re at an increased risk for health complications. Chronic stress and long hours can definitely lead to unhealthy lifestyle habits and behaviors that result in health conditions like the ones mentioned above, but also the inability to be a poised, confident, generous, and empathetic leader. If your health is not optimized, you will be losing productivity from the most important person in your business, you. Once that happens, the snowball effect will take hold and before you know it, your company won’t be optimized.
I help busy leaders just like you to improve their underlying health so that you can have a sharp memory, clear focus, an increased resilience to stress, improved overall productivity, and can lead your team with confidence and courage. In my MINDPEAK program, we work together to enhance the 5 Pillars that promote overall health and mental performance. In this 1:1 program, we work together to develop a simple, actionable lifestyle that fits in with your busy schedule, and allows you to optimize your health, performance, and overall wellbeing. If you know your health is holding both you, and your team, back from optimizing your performance and growing the business the way it needs to be, this program is a great fit for you. Sign up for a free 30 minute coaching call with me where we will discuss the health challenges you face, and come up with a plan that fits your needs to optimize your performance. Sign up for your free session here.
As much as you hate to admit it, your spouse and doctor are right. You need to start prioritizing your health. Both for…ya know..your overall life wellbeing, but also for the growth of your business. You work too hard to not be optimizing your performance and leading your team to do the same. As Warren Buffet says, “by far the best investment you can make is in yourself.” Improving your overall health will be the investment with the biggest ROI.
References
Araújo, J., Cai, J., & Stevens, J. (2019). Prevalence of Optimal Metabolic Health in American Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009–2016. Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, 17(1), 46–52. https://doi.org/10.1089/met.2018.0105
Cenit, M. C., Sanz, Y., & Codoñer-Franch, P. (2017). Influence of gut microbiota on neuropsychiatric disorders. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 23(30), 5486. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v23.i30.5486
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015, December 4). Increase Productivity | Control Health Care Costs | Model | Workplace Health Promotion | CDC. CDC.Gov. https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/model/control-costs/benefits/productivity.html#:%7E:text=In%20general%2C%20healthier%20employees%20are%20more%20productive.&text=The%20cost%20savings%20of%20providing,costs%20to%20train%20replacement%20employees.
Holloway, C. J., Cochlin, L. E., Emmanuel, Y., Murray, A., Codreanu, I., Edwards, L. M., Szmigielski, C., Tyler, D. J., Knight, N. S., Saxby, B. K., Lambert, B., Thompson, C., Neubauer, S., & Clarke, K. (2011). A high-fat diet impairs cardiac high-energy phosphate metabolism and cognitive function in healthy human subjects. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 93(4), 748–755. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.110.002758
Leigh, S. J., & Morris, M. J. (2020). Diet, inflammation and the gut microbiome: Mechanisms for obesity-associated cognitive impairment. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Molecular Basis of Disease, 1866(6), 165767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2020.165767
Lohaus, D., Habermann, W., el Kertoubi, I., & Röser, F. (2021). Working While Ill Is Not Always Bad—Positive Effects of Presenteeism. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.620918
Makki, K., Froguel, P., & Wolowczuk, I. (2013). Adipose Tissue in Obesity-Related Inflammation and Insulin Resistance: Cells, Cytokines, and Chemokines. ISRN Inflammation, 2013, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/139239
Marsland, A. L., Gianaros, P. J., Kuan, D. C. H., Sheu, L. K., Krajina, K., & Manuck, S. B. (2015). Brain morphology links systemic inflammation to cognitive function in midlife adults. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 48, 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2015.03.015
Merrill, R. M., Aldana, S. G., Pope, J. E., Anderson, D. R., Coberley, C. R., & Whitmer, And The HERO Research Stud, R. W. (2012). Presenteeism According to Healthy Behaviors, Physical Health, and Work Environment. Population Health Management, 15(5), 293–301. https://doi.org/10.1089/pop.2012.0003
Scott, S. B., Graham-Engeland, J. E., Engeland, C. G., Smyth, J. M., Almeida, D. M., Katz, M. J., Lipton, R. B., Mogle, J. A., Munoz, E., Ram, N., & Sliwinski, M. J. (2015). The Effects of Stress on Cognitive Aging, Physiology and Emotion (ESCAPE) Project. BMC Psychiatry, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0497-7
Strömberg, C., Aboagye, E., Hagberg, J., Bergström, G., & Lohela-Karlsson, M. (2017). Estimating the Effect and Economic Impact of Absenteeism, Presenteeism, and Work Environment–Related Problems on Reductions in Productivity from a Managerial Perspective. Value in Health, 20(8), 1058–1064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2017.05.008
Yates, K. F., Sweat, V., Yau, P. L., Turchiano, M. M., & Convit, A. (2012). Impact of Metabolic Syndrome on Cognition and Brain. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 32(9), 2060–2067. https://doi.org/10.1161/atvbaha.112.252759