CEO Today - February 2022

EXECUTIVE COACHING www.ceotodaymagazine.com 71 unless we are very intentional about sustaining it. When the pain finally catches up to us, that’s when we want to do something about it.” Unfortunately, when pain does catch up to us, it often takes a lot of work from thereon. How can corporate leaders create motivation for improved health? One secret to addressing our health and wellbeing is to increase our awareness of potential consequences. For example, to affirm that if you allow yourself to have significant stress, get under 7 hours of sleep per night (most people need 7 to 8 hours), and eat poorly, you will eventually suffer the consequences. Summoning the power of this reality toward changing your habits can trigger significant motivation. Another approach is to allow yourself to dream of a better future. What are your dreams for how you want to feel physically and thing they do for themselves and all concerned. Second, if two or three of the dimensions of burnout are at play, it is important that a person get help. Family can provide support, but as one executive said to me recently: “It’s not right to require family members to help me be accountable for all this stuff, I need outside help for that.” A good rule of thumb is that if you believe that you need to work on past wounds, a therapist is an appropriate choice. If you feel that past wounds are not an issue and want to look forward and design a new future, a coach is a good choice. It is also fine to use both, but in that case, it is important to inform both the therapist and the coach. Beyond that, I have the following important challenges to give you: create a better separation between work and the rest of your life, get more physical movement/exercise and refresh your mind with new, creative thought. Why is it so important for leaders to pay close attention to their health and wellbeing? In short, it’s so easy for the downhill slide of health to get out of hand. All of us enjoy having good health and wellbeing when it is present in our lives. We presume upon such things. As a neurologist once said to me: “The absence of pain is… well… nothing, it doesn’t motivate us emotionally? How present do you want to be with your family? Make these dreams vivid. See where they take you! The truth is that many if not most C-Suite executives live on the verge of a health crisis. Good health is often deferred until later, “After the company has finally achieved ‘x.’” or “Until I can move to a lower stress situation.” Another common misconception is the time-off remedy. Some executives do take their vacation time, which is admirable, yet resume unhealthy habits the moment they return to work. Time off may have allowed a person to get away from work but it did not allow for them to change those habits. Instead, why not develop work habits that sustain you day-today? This would model sustainable work paradigms for your employees (some of whom don’t have the vacation or health benefits you do) and reap enormous gains for your health. The resistance usually comes from knowing that it’s difficult to change deeply ingrained habits. (Incidentally, that’s what coaches are for.) It takes courage, focus, perseverance for sure, but why not stand out as a leader instead of blending with all the rest who simply burn out and suffer in their retirement years? Web: drkegley.com Email: drkegley@gmail.com Phone: +1 (360) 870-9310 “One secret to addressing our health and wellbeing is to increase our awareness of potential consequences.“

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