Take the Lead: Improving Your Sleep, Because Leaders Need It

Today at work, I struggled through a ridiculously brutal shift preparing legal briefs. However, I spent more time fighting to keep my eyes open than reading client correspondence because I did not sleep very well last night. There is no doubt that sleep is an important part of daily health…but for those who need a little reminder why, here is an article from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In particular, I emphasize the need for leaders to realize this commonly neglected aspect of life because, “Lack of adequate sleep affects mood, motivation, judgment, and our perception of events.” (Hint Hint: THESE ARE IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF BEING A LEADER.) Also, I realize people were looking for something life affirming and inspiring like “how to succeed in business” or “find the meaning of life.” Today, I am going to take back my old adage that “sleep is for rich people” and give something back to a contemporary North American society that has lost its ability to appreciate simple pleasures such as sleep in favor of overworking and constant exposure to so many distractions that take away from our ability to slow ourselves down and relax.

I am going to share three aspects of sleep improvement that I have learned that have started to help me get more effective sleeping hours and less tossing and turning. Of course, “to each their own” and all that jazz; but I definitely encourage everyone to give their input on how they get better rest…or if you try these methods, let me know how it has improved/worsened your sleeping.

1) Sleep Journal/Reflection. Honestly. It works. I always knew I was not getting enough sleep but I never really cared WHY. I just thought of ways to just make sure I was tired at the end of the day. Yet, I was still tossing and turning and going to bed at 1:00am only to have to be up again by 6:00am to get ready for work. It was not until I started logging specifically what bedtime I was trying to gun for (10:30pm to be up for 5:30am), as well as what I was doing and what was going on in my mind that I realized some of the impediments that were holding me back. Primarily, these were pointless worrying about my current issues such as writing the LSATS and preparing for work, my finances and student debt and trying to find a job in Virginia. Sure, I was trying to think of solutions to fix these but at 10:00pm, there was no way I can implement anything and all I was doing was eating up sleep time. To add to my suffering, not only was I worrying about useless stuff, but I was also doing while watching TV shows on my computer to keep my mind off my busy schedule. This was a fail and a half.

Good leaders cannot take a positive step forward and expect others to follow them successfully without FIRST recognizing the challenges that come along the way. That being said, do not think you can tackle sleep deprivation without first making yourself aware of the reasons you are suffering from it. If anyone has learned anything about the Terra Nova Expedition, it is that preparation and recognizing your hurdles before you jump them are key.

2) Clearing the mind. For me, sleep deprivation is a predominantly mental thing. I am so focused on the things I have going on that I cannot sleep. I have done MANY things to counter this train of thought and honestly, most of them have come to no avail. However, I have discovered some very classical tips that have helped me with this issue. The first is getting regular exercise. This is probably self-explanatory but it is true. I am always happier and more positive after my post-law job workout/volleyball game with the family. The second tip I have is writing out everything that is on my mind. Again, I do not know why this works but it feels like when I write things down, it is a lot like letting go. This is a huge step for my improvement as a leader because I have learned time and time again that a leader who is fighting those inner demons is just simply not as effective a leader.

3) Lighting. It definitely affects your ability to sleep. If you are like me, you sleep with your computer nearby and are no doubt hit with the bright glow of your screen or power button. Kill artificial lights as much as possible because they confuse your body’s natural sleep patterns. What I found that has been working very well for me was this computer program, f.lux which basically changes your screen’s color to this soft orange evening like hue when night comes. Doing this has mentally prepared me that the day is coming to an end and it has actually helped in making me sleepy because the hue is soft and boring.

Anyway those are just some little insights that I have found helped me in leading myself to become a healthier and happier person, which in turn has also made me a more effective leader. That being said, it is already 10:37pm. GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE!

Cheers,

Kristoffer Ryan Diocampo

“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”

- Sarah Williams

What is your favorite inspirational speech?

Here’s mine by Al Pacino in “Any Given Sunday.”

I don’t know what to say really.

Three minutes
to the biggest battle of our professional lives
all comes down to today.
Either
we heal
as a team
or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch
play by play
till we’re finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen
believe me
and
we can stay here
and get the shit kicked out of us
or
we can fight our way
back into the light.
We can climb out of hell.
One inch, at a time.

Now I can’t do it for you.
I’m too old.
I look around and I see these young faces
and I think
I mean
I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.
I uh….
I pissed away all my money
believe it or not.
I chased off
anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately,
I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life
things get taken from you.
That’s, that’s part of life.
But,
you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game
life or football
the margin for error is so small.
I mean
one half step too late or to early
you don’t quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast
and you don’t quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that’s going to make the fucking difference
between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING.

I’ll tell you this
in any fight
it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know
if I am going to have any life anymore
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.

Now I can’t make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy
who will sacrifice himself for this team
because he knows when it comes down to it,
you are gonna do the same thing for him.

That’s a team, gentlemen
and either we heal now, as a team,
or we will die as individuals.
That’s football guys.
That’s all it is.
Now, what do you gonna do?

Out of curiosity, what are the speeches inspire you?

The Rafting Lesson

During the month of September 2010, I had the opportunity to join some fellow university students from my leadership program to take a rafting trip in Paris, Ontario. Our team, “The Scotch on the Rocks” was so aptly named due to our constant inability to avoid colliding with rocks during our rafting expedition. Luckily, nothing was damaged and no one was lost at sea, errrr…river…but there were several highlights of this experience that I would like to share with all of you.

I highly recommend the book, Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation by Sally Hogshead. This book explores 7 main triggers that lead people to the state of Fascination, or rather:

“It’s when you become lost in a moment, losing track of time and the world around, completely focused on a person or message. When you fascinate other people, not only do they focus on you and your message but they’re also more likely to believe, care about, and retell your message.” (Hogshead, xvi – xvii)

I will not illustrate all 7 examples of fascination from this book, but there are 3 specific examples that I wanted to point out that best illustrate the leadership lessons I learned from this rafting trip.

Trust: Arguably, I will say that this is the most important concept of leadership. At various points of our trip, our rafting guides would point out random places in the river that from my perspective, I would deem “SOL (S*it Outta Luck) spots. If your raft hit those current areas, you ran the risk of being royally screwed. Of course, as novice rafters we pretty much ran into every SOL spot available throughout the trip. The result? I had to volunteer on numerous occasions to jump off the boat into the river and push us away from the rocks OR we became assaulted with tree branches and other forms of nature from the river’s edge like we were Persians crashing into Spartan spears in the movie, 300.

The moral of the story here is that trust is measured by comparing our expectations against deviations; or rather, if something happens that is consistently similar to our expectations then we are more likely to count on it. (Hogshead 176) Our guides explained in depth what the obstacle was and what would happen if we ran into it. As such, we listened closely to their advice and did our best to follow it because they created that foundation of trust through their experience and teaching. As leaders, it is important to give people these tools to allow them to independently learn from their challenges.

Alarm: According to Sally Hogshead, people take action at the threat of a negative consequence. In marketing, this strategy is utilized through limited time offers (if you don’t buy now, you miss the deal). In leadership, alarm is a method of influence by illustrating impending challenges to followers. I have found many times that leaders hide upcoming disasters to avoid blame, especially if the leader was not prepared for them. However, in a seasoned leader, the use of alarm can be effectively utilized if it is accompanied by proper organization and preparation. Our guides demonstrated this through SOL spots but my leadership team took this a step longer in a more interesting way. At some point in time, our team started lagging behind other rafters. However, we recreated the fascination of alarm by spreading the negative aspect of “being last” and all the taunting that we could expect from that title. This brought a new found sense of  both motivation and innovation. We developed a system that I would call the “100 strokes” system in which we all counted out 100 strokes in unison together and then rested for 5 minutes before repeating. This method was extremely effective in not only being an enjoyable and motivating way to continue the long journey but it also allowed us to pass several of our opponents on the trip.

Power: This concept of power is not necessarily about title or authority, but rather a method of influence. In a positive way, power can be used to motivate while the reverse of the spectrum is intimidation and force. However, one aspect of power illustrated by Sally Hogshead that is very relevant to leadership is the controlling of environment. If a leader is able to control the basic elements of a situation, these subtle controls can act as an effective influence tactic. In leadership situations, we all hear the “keep a positive attitude” spiel that everyone says. But to control the environment means to fully enforce the message you are trying to convey through any external means. So for our rafting trip, enforcing a positive attitude meant that even the slightest negative thought or perspective such as the trip being too long, people getting tired or the challenges we faced was responded to immediately by positive encouragement. If someone seemed to be on the verge of complaining, the negativity was simply not allowed on the boat. It was quickly replaced with something positive. When people were too tired to paddle, others took the initiative to keep paddling and refused to quit. In the movie, “The Replacements”, Keanu Reeves illustrates the comparison of quicksand to consistent failure. My question to you all would be, if you were in that situation then how would you respond and deal with that fear?

Anyway, those are 3 aspects of leadership that are synonymous with the book I read. I am looking forward to everyone’s harsh criticisms and inspiring insights.

Cheers,

Kris Diocampo

“Policies are many. Principles are few. Policies will change. Principles never do.”

- John C. Maxwell