The Relationship Between Health and Leadership

Why those who don't exercise aren't rated as highly as those who exercise is a difficult question to answer. Could it be that if a leader is less healthy, his or her leadership effectiveness is compromised, however subtly? Or is it that those who are less fastidious in taking care of business are also less fastidious in taking care of their own health? More research will certainly be required to find the answer. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, the perception of lower effectiveness in those who are less healthy is there. Either way, these data suggest that the idea that one needs to sacrifice health in order to be effective is erroneous—good health and regular exercise are positively rather than negatively related to performance. Unfortunately, when examining the health of the executives in LAP, we found that many were at significant health risk.

When we examined the prevalence of modifiable risk factors among the LAP executives, we found that 65 percent had two or more risk factors, and 19 percent had four or more risk factors. This might explain why even those in the top 25 percent for effectiveness were still at moderate risk, with an average of 2.4 modifiable risk factors, albeit still with a significantly lower number of risk factors than the 3.6 averaged by those in the lowest 25 percent.

When we examined individual factors, we found that 64 percent had unfavorable lipid profiles (elevated total and/or LDL cholesterol, elevated triglyceride levels, and/or low HDL levels), 62 percent were overweight, and 24 percent had blood pressure equal to or greater than 140/90 (140/90 is considered stage I hypertension). Fifty percent did not exercise regularly, and 25 percent exercised less than one hour per week or not at all. Although only 11 percent were cigarette smokers, 78 percent reported that they were ex-smokers.