There is a common assumption that successful leaders achieve their success through working long hours, often sacrificing sleep.
In other words, going to sleep late and working hard equates to success, right?
This is a wrong assumption that you might be holding on to. There is a big relationship between regular sleep and effective leadership.
Why You Need More Sleep As A Leader
Sleep enhances result-oriented operations: You need to avoid distractions and focus on ensuring your company is heading in the planned direction. Your ability to focus is impaired by insufficient sleep.
According to research, staying awake for 17 or more hours will make you perform tasks like someone whose blood alcohol level is 0.05%.
Staying awake for 20 hours will make you perform tasks like someone whose alcohol level is at 0.1%.
You need attention and concentration to steer your team to success.
Problem-Solving
Sleep is very important in enhancing your cognitive skills, which are crucial in solving problems. These include pattern recognition and insight. It also helps you to come up with creative and innovative ways of problem-solving.
People who sleep well are most likely able to come up with new ways of solving a problem. And don’t take my word for it; this has been shown by research. In fact, even a simple nap can make all the difference.
When you sleep, creative thinking takes place. This links information, thus giving you creative solutions.
Team Support
You need to understand people in order to help them. To understand them, you need to interpret the emotions displayed on their face and be able to interpret the tone of their voice.
When you are sleep-deprived, you are more likely to misinterpret these signs.
Consequently, this might cause you to overreact in certain circumstances and express your feelings in a harsh and negative tone. You will also find it hard to trust someone else.
According to Harvard Business Review, when a leader has an inadequate sleep, the employees are likely to be less engaged in their work.
This may lead to a negative impact on the job, including a lack of job satisfaction, a decline in performance, and even opting to quit.
The Way Forward
Leaders need to ensure that they and their team are getting not only efficient sleep but also quality sleep.
This can be promoted in the following ways:
- Introducing smart technology: You can supply or inform your employees about tools meant to improve sleep management. F- Lux is just one example. It minimizes your computer’s blue light, which has been proven to affect sleep. Why not use such a tool yourself?
- Predictable time off (PTO): A good way to catch up on lost sleep is by introducing a planned night off where you have no smartphone, no emails, and no work.
- Work time limits: Introduce specific hour limits after which work is no longer allowed. That ensures you have sufficient time to rest and re-energize for the next day.
- Mandatory work-free vacations: Getting away from work will help you to disconnect and rest. By doing so, you will be able to catch up on any lost sleep and have the energy to face any new challenges.
Influence
Sleep deprivation can lead to high burnout and low engagement in your work life. Lack of sleep can cause you to make a big mistake while making decisions due to poor judgment.
You can greatly improve your productivity and brainpower by ensuring you are having a good night of sleep.
The performance of you as a leader, and your team, is definitely influenced by the quality of sleep you get.
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How Much Sleep Do You Get?
If you have ideas about sleep that might be helpful to readers, share them in the comments section below. Thanks!
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