The Sandman Improves Performance
It’s Time for Business to Acknowledge the Importance of Rest and Recovery
More than a decade ago, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was at the forefront of a new training movement that treated rest as a vital component of athletic success, a significant deviation from the prevailing training paradigms, equating more workouts with improved functioning. Since then, athletes, coaches, and scientists have documented the incredible importance of rest and recovery to achieving peak physical performance. Success in the athletic arena is now transitioning into the general population.
Sleep, rest, and recovery are critical to every sphere of human activity. For many years, government regulators have mandated minimum rest requirements for pilots, truck drivers, and others in the transportation industry because there is a clear correlation between adequate rest and safety. Under the Geneva Convention, sleep deprivation is torture. Medical professionals and scientists may debate specifics, but there is virtually no debate about whether sleep and recovery contribute significantly to optimum physical, mental, and emotional operation.
All too often, vacation is interpreted as a perk and not a feature of effective organizational operation. In many businesses and nonprofits, leadership makes it clear either explicitly or implicitly that vacation should only be taken sparingly, if at all. Working more than eight hours a day has become an expectation rather than an exception. As noted in an August 2020 article in the Harvard Business Review, “Research shows that those who take more than 10 days of vacation are 30% more likely to receive a raise, and those who take regular vacations have greater job satisfaction.”
Leaders, especially those in the executive suite, often have difficulty modeling proper rest and recovery. Working long hours is a sign of commitment. Forsaking vacation and other restorative activities is considered toughness and seen as a badge of importance. An entire mythology has grown up around the concept of the indefatigable leader. This myth is not only damaging to the leader but the organization. A dismissive or disdainful attitude towards rest and recovery does more harm than good and negatively impacts the bottom line.
As the COVID epidemic in the United States ebbs, and businesses and nonprofits resume traditional operations, some companies have recognized the stress and fatigue of their employees. These entities have instituted “unscheduled holidays” for employees to help them recover from professional and family lives disrupted by the pandemic. Initiatives like this are a good start and certainly improve employee morale, but systemic change is needed.
Leadership sets the tone for an organization’s operation. Executives need to model rest and recovery practices. Establishing a work culture that respects rest is an affordable and straightforward method to increase performance, creativity, teamwork, and morale.
