Leaders face incessant demands every day, making leadership exhausting. With leadership burnout on the rise—53% of managers are currently reporting burnout—it’s essential to provide new approaches to overcome burnout and help leaders thrive.
As a public company CEO coach and positive organizational psychologist, I have studied and researched leaders and teams for more than two decades, including interviewing two dozen Fortune 1000 CEOs this past year. Through my research and experience, I have discovered the hidden edge for leaders to lead at their full potential is: holistic leadership.
Holistic leadership places wellbeing as foundational to maximizing leadership performance. It leverages the whole body, integrating one’s psychology and physiology. By giving attention to your self-care, you build your vitality, giving you an abundance of energy. When you are highly vital, you can tap into your physical, emotional and psychological energy to lead at your best.
Drawing from my research and interviews with CEOs, I have found the top five strategies leaders can take to attain greater wellbeing in order to perform at their peak.
Here are the top five strategies to perform at your peak:
- Nurture High Quality Relationships
The top approach CEOs use to encourage their wellbeing is nurturing high-quality relationships. 100% of the leaders I interviewed spoke about the importance of personal and professional relationships, pointing to the energizing effect of their high-quality connections.
Prioritize the relationships in your life that bring you joy and energy. Invest in them by making time to connect for a meal, a walk or a weekly phone call. Take inventory of your relationships that matter to you. As you review, consider relationships in each of these categories: family, significant other, friends, work relationships. Ask yourself: are you getting the time you need with each person? If not, choose one relationship to give attention to. What’s one thing you could do to invest in the relationship more?
- Care for your Physical Health
From exercise and movement to nutrition and sleep, physical health was cited by 85% of interviewees as critical to fostering wellbeing.
Leaders must prioritize their health to increase their wellbeing. Small steps can lead to big improvements. Start with ones that can easily be incorporated into your day: drinking more water, cutting back on processed foods, and moving more often during the day.
Another good place to start is to schedule an annual physical exam to get baseline metrics for vitals like blood pressure, nutrient levels, and inflammation markers that you can work on improving. An important key to physical health is getting enough sleep every night. Most people need seven to eight hours of sleep. If you think you’re are not getting enough, use a sleep-tracking app to find out where the issue lies.
- Create Space in Your Day
One of the biggest issues leaders face is out-of-control calendars. This lack of space reduces effectiveness.
75% of the CEOs I spoke with discussed the importance of making space in their day to think, plan, and get work done as a crucial part of their wellbeing. Unfortunately, the back-to-back meeting culture makes it incredibly challenging to actually execute. This issue has only become worse as virtual work has increased.
Instead, leaders can intentionally operate differently, by focusing both individually and systemically. Start by creating blocks of time on your calendar throughout the day to think, reflect, or simply relax, every day. Consider changing meeting durations from 30 minutes to 20 minutes or from one hour to 45 minutes. Make the commitment to yourself and your team that this time for space is essential and may not be infringed upon.
- Cultivate a Positive Mindset
Cultivating a positive mindset starts by recognizing you are the master and not a victim of your mind. 50% of the leaders I interviewed discussed the importance of having a positive and growth mindset for contributing to their wellbeing.
By choosing what thoughts you give your energy to and focus on, you can become the master of your mind. You don’t need to be a victim to the voice of your inner-critic, the overly self-critical voice that often gets in the way of each of us being our best. You can choose to learn to work with that voice with comion without acting from it. You can also learn to give your attention to the voice of your own wisdom.
- Connect to Meaning
Connecting to meaning, having an impact and finding your purpose are fundamental to holistic leadership. 45% of the CEOs I interviewed referenced the importance of being closely connected to their meaning, purpose and impact in order to promote greater wellbeing.
One important way to connect to meaning on a regular basis is by engaging in acts of giving and kindness towards others. Doing so has positive effects on overall wellbeing. Having practices to give to others is one avenue to cultivate more meaning in your life and can give you a greater sense of purpose. Make a practice of giving and kindness to others in simple ways.
Conclusion
In closing, holistic leadership provides tangible solutions to help leaders thrive at work and life. In order for leaders to maximize their performance, it requires consistently focusing on their own self-care. These five strategies can help you get started on improving your wellbeing to cultivate your vitality. As you enhance your holistic leadership, you’ll have the energy resources to lead from your full leadership capacity. Ultimately, this results in showing up to perform at your best without depleting yourself.
About the Author:
Dr. Jamie Shapiro is a master-certified executive leadership coach and organizational psychologist who specializes in working with CEOs of public companies and their executive teams. She is the CEO and founder of Connected EC, a C-suite executive coaching company, and the author of Brilliant: Be the Leader Who Shines Brightly Without Burning Out.
