It's Not Lazy. It's Leadership.

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We've been perpetuating an unhealthy example of what good leadership looks like.

That example? Good leaders are always on. First ones in, last ones out. Inbox zero by midnight. Never let them see you sweat (or sleep, or take a lunch break, or have a life outside work).

And what happens when we buy into that lie? Maybe you’re living it right now.

We end up exhausted, making decisions with intense brain fog, taking calls from birthday parties. Vacations. Sacrificing rest for “success”.

Chronic sleep deprivation hijacks your brain's threat detection system, making everything feel urgent. When you're running on fumes, your prefrontal cortex (the part responsible for decision-making, emotional regulation, and strategic thinking) basically clocks out.

So yeah, we’re still sitting in front of our screens, but our brains left the building hours ago.

But when we prioritize healthy work, including rest, we get up to 11.6x ROI in productivity and retention. [Source: WEF/McKinsey Health Institute]

Not only is prioritizing rest not an expense, but it also pays for itself eleven times over.

Never, ever truly resting doesn’t prove we're strong.

The only thing it proves is how hard we’re working to do our very best robot impersonation.

As we get more depleted, we make worse decisions, lose our best people, and (eventually) burn out spectacularly.

What most leaders don't know: There are seven types of rest our bodies and brains need, and sleep is only one of them. 

That's why we can sleep eight hours and still wake up exhausted. Physical rest is only part of the equation.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith identified seven distinct rest types: physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social, and spiritual. Most of us are running deficits in three or four areas, but only addressing one (if that).

Your happy hour truth: when we rest, our teams perform better and are healthier people. Teams with rest-modeled leadership report 23% lower stress and 18% higher engagement [Gallup, 2025].

When we don't rest, our teams burn out trying to keep up with an unsustainable pace.

They deserve better. So do you.

Ambition

In fact, we all deserve a world where rest is completely accepted as a core leadership competency, not some character defect.

Where "I'm taking the afternoon off" doesn't require an apology or a three-paragraph justification email.

Where leaders are rewarded for strategic clarity and effective team development. Not who sent the most 2 am Slacks.

Am I recommending you immediately transform into someone who does sunrise yoga and journals about gratitude? Nope. I mean, if that's your thing, namaste, babe.

I'm talking about something way more radical: recognizing that your ability to think clearly, make good calls, and keep your best people depends on you being rested.

Because it does. Here's what actually happens when leaders model rest:

• We make better decisions (Forbes confirms well-rested leaders make sharper strategic calls)

• We’re more innovative (SHRM research shows leader-modeled rest boosts innovation by 12%)

• We improve our team retention (turns out people actually prefer working for bosses who don’t run on cortisol and spite)

• We stop feeling like every decision is a fire we have to fight. 

The new ambition isn't proving we can survive on less sleep than everyone else. 

It's being able to enjoy the kind of healthy success that doesn't require us to sacrifice our health, our relationships,

or our sanity.

GO | DO

Estimated time: 10 - 15 minutes | Estimated energy: minimal

This week, get to know the rest you (really) need.

Most leaders think rest = sleep. But that's only one of seven types of rest your body and brain actually need.

What’s In It For All Of Us

When we start resting as a leadership practice, something really powerful shifts.

The corporate wellness industry would love for you to believe that rest is an individual responsibility. Buy the app. Book the retreat. Fix yourself on your own time.

But when leaders prioritize rest, everyone wins. Teams thrive. When we work in healthier ways, entire organizations become more innovative, more resilient, and…more human.

🤖 And there is absolutely nothing bad about “more human” right about now, especially when those humans are well-rested.

We can change work. One rested leader at a time.

Quick favor: forward this email to someone who should know about the leadership priority of resting. Making the workplace a healthier place is going to take all of us.

Get In There

• 📺 "Sleep is Your Superpower" (+15M views) Matt Walker's TED talk on why sleep is a leadership skill, not a luxury

• 🎙️ "Why Rest is a Right, Not a Luxury" (+53K views) Psychotherapist Jotina Buck's 2025 TEDx talk on rest as a human right

• 📚 "Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less" Overwork may be our default, but Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's guide to integrating rest and productivity proves it’s not really working for anyone

Oh, you’re all the way down here! Hi! I hope this edition shed a little light on the importance of rest on our ability to effectively lead.

You’re not a better leader because you’re exhausted. You’re just an exhausted leader proving to your team it’s expected from them, too.

We can change, one small step at a time. THANKS. For being here, and for being a part of a movement we deserve. It’s going to take all of us to make the workplace a better place. And we’ll do it together.