Leaders in the corporate world are familiar with a sports metaphor: They want to get a project across the finish line or make sure workplace standards are up to par. But many seemingly fail to carry forward the value athletes have in rest.
ServiceNow president and Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuono, who has espoused the benefits of fitness in both individual health and leadership, said that while the importance of recovery has broken into culture outside of athletics, it hasn’t fully permeated the vocabulary or habits of business leaders. Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif. on Tuesday, Mastantuono said many senior employees still embody toxic ideas about overworking.
“There’s always been this—if you have to work 14-hour days and you get four hours sleep, and that shows that you’re working the hardest and you deserve the most,” she told Alicia Hatch, U.S. Sports chief commercial officer and women’s sports leader at Deloitte. “And in fact, that is such a terrible example for the people around us.”
Research has consistently shown the value of boundaries and the establishment of work-life balance. A University of Florida meta-analysis of nearly 200 studies, for example, found recovery from work is associated with better sleep, improved mental health, and increased long-term satisfaction with one’s life. But internalizing that rest is important is a different matter, Mastantuono noted.
“Recovery is part of the performance; it’s not secondary,” she said. “Muscle doesn’t grow when we pump out at the gym. It grows when we’re sleeping at night and letting the muscles recover.”
Mastantuono has noticed the benefits of recovery in her own life, attributing better work-life balance to a honed ability to listen instead of reaction, and maintain calm under duress and pressure, which has enabled her teams to execute more effectively.
“When we do focus on taking care of ourselves, then we are much better bosses, much better colleagues, much better parents,” she said.
Janet Evans, a four-time Olympic medalist and swimming and chief athlete officer of LA28, the organizing committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, was well-versed in the importance of recovery in the context of competition, but has similarly needed reminders about taking a breather. Evans told Hatch about LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover, a three-star ex-U.S. Army Lieutenant General who frequently incorporates military parlance into in-office conversations.
“No one’s guns are drawn. No one is shooting each other,” Evans recalled Hoover saying. “So Janet, you’re gonna figure this out tomorrow.”