Does having a good quality sleep is an important consideration for a leader and a leadership process? A leadership is an important endeavor that requires responsibility. The mind should be clear and collect in order to be effective. One of the modern leadership approaches talks about skills as some important attributes of the leader. The skills that can be learnt. Among one of the skills should be the skill to get a good sleep at night.
“The basic idea of the skills approach is that leaders must possess certain abilities that allow them to act as a leader. These abilities are not traits, but rather sets of behaviors that allow them react to certain types of situations appropriately.” (PSU, 2018, para.1). Katz (1955, as cited in PSU, 2018, para.1) created a three skills model, where leaders should posses three basic skills: technical, conceptual and human. Those skills gain different level of importance depending on the leader’s position in the organization. There is one more that can be added to leader’s arsenal, it is sleep. According to Carter and Hougaard (2018), “In our assessment of 35,000 leaders and interviews with 250 more, we found that the more senior a person’s role is, the more sleep they get.” (Carter & Hougaard, 2018, para. 2).
Most of us heard the notions about the importance of sleep. According to CDC (2016),” Sleep is an important part of good health. Sleeping less than 7 hours per night is linked to increased risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and poor mental health, as well as early death. Not getting the recommended amount of sleep can affect your ability to make good decisions and increases the chances of motor vehicle crashes” (CDC, 2018, para. 1). We should strive to receive at least 7 hours of good quality sleep.
Cees ’t Hart, president and CEO of Carlsberg Group in his interview says that sleep has always been the foundation of his performance (Carter & Hougaard, 2018, para. 4). Not surprising, since “research has found that there is a direct link between getting enough sleep and leading effectively and that sleep-deprived leaders are less inspiring” (Carter & Hougaard, 2018, para. 6). Senior executives caught on the trend and do their best to ensure they get good sleep whenever possible.
Takeaway here is simple, when we get more sleep we are simply better at making decisions, leading and inspiring, which are important when it comes to development of our basic skills. So next time we set our priorities of whether to sleep or not, best idea is to block off 7 hours for good quality sleep. I am excited to hear what you think and what are your experiences.
References
Carter and Hougaard (2018). Senior executives get more sleep than everyone else. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://hbr.org/2018/02/senior-executives-get-more-sleep-than-everyone-else
CDC (2016). Getting enough sleep? CDC Features. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://www.cdc.gov/features/getting-enough-sleep/index.html
PSU (2018). Skills Approach Defined. PSYCH 485. Lesson 04. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1925331/modules/items/23786511
PSU (2018). Skills Approach Models- Three Skills Model. PSYCH 485. Lesson 04. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1925331/modules/items/23786512