W hen choosing someone to assume a leadership position in a com- plex organization, many criteria are typically considered, including decisionmaking ability, industry knowledge, technical savvy, ability to build and lead a team, and interpersonal skills. In today's world the list of key leadership characteristics grows ever longer.
But one such characteristic is often either overlooked or assumed to be present: stamina. Today's leaders must be able to perform at high levels, and such performance requires that they not only approach their tasks with energy and focus but also sustain that intensity of performance over extended periods of time. Especially when an organization's operations are dispersed around the globe, and when devices designed to keep leaders in touch with operations at all times of day or night have proliferated, a leader's work is literally never done. The demands of endless meetings and dinners and constant travel take a toll.
The stress that results from such pressures can be intense. Unless a leader learns to manage stress and to periodically release the physical and emotional buildup of pressure, he or she is not going to last long in the job. It's no wonder that we read increasingly of leaders who step down not because they are incapable but because the pressures on them and their families are too great and ultimately injurious to their health.
Not surprisingly, research at CCL has shown that executives who take good care of themselves physically are seen by those with whom they work-bosses, peers, and direct reports-to be more effective than executives who don't. This doesn't mean that leaders need to look and behave like top athletes or must have no disabilities or chronic ailments. It simply means that effective leaders are perceived to be good stewards of their physical health and to have the energy and stamina to be fully engaged in their work.
Tony Schwartz, a best-selling author and performance psychology expert, argues that an executive's life should be most akin not to a marathon but rather to a series of sprints. Schwartz, who was a keynote speaker at CCL's 2004 Friends of the Center Leadership Conference, believes that leaders need to be creative in finding ways to build their reservoirs of positive energy.
Realistically, most leaders don't have the time to take lengthy vacations to recharge their batteries. And when they do go on vacation, they never quite get away-there are always voice mail and e-mail to be checked and unforeseen crises to be resolved. Schwartz advocates smaller victories-moments during the day when the busy executive can stop or slow the pace. Such moments can provide time for reflection, meditation, light exercise, a walk, even a quick napanything to slow the rush of adrenaline that can keep leaders going until they sleep. Such brief interruptions in the craziness that passes for executive life these days should of course be supplemented with regular exercise and good eating habits, which are especially hard to maintain when traveling.
In short, leaders need to take good care of themselves if they expect to take care of those around them. They owe it to their organizations to stay fit and fully engaged in their work. No one, least of all a leader, is well served if physical health and stamina take a backseat to the relentless and debilitating rat-a-tat-tat of life in the executive suite.