How Physical Exercise Relates to Leadership Development

There are clear physiological benefits to exercise. It’s been well-documented that being physically fit helps you perform better in all areas of your life. There’s an increase in “good feeling” chemicals in the body and brain that result from moving your body (endorphins, dopamine, etc.). If you are physically fit, you are more able to handle the daily grind; you have higher stamina and greater energy reserves. There can be a corresponding reduction in stress and increased longevity that come along with increased fitness. In addition to the tangible benefits, physical training also offers an opportunity to become a better leader.

Leaders are often called upon to navigate uncharted territory. It might be a situation with a subordinate that they haven’t encountered, or a new business endeavor that requires vision, creativity, and audacity. Whatever the situation, the leader is the one leading the way and setting the tone, pace, and direction for others to follow. This requires the ability to navigate unfamiliar terrain and a tolerance for discomfort. The great news is that these are skills that can be developed and improved through physical training, specifically in a domain that pushes the leader’s threshold or places increasingly challenging demands on their body.

Some situations require that the leader act immediately - the leader does not have the luxury of time to analyze and must therefore react. A reaction is different from a response in the sense that a reaction is frequently automatic and happens without much thought. In contrast, a response occurs when the leader has adequate time to evaluate and make a reasoned decision about how to proceed. Like so many things in life, improvement comes from practice. In other words, the quality of reactions can be improved with training, by putting oneself in low-stakes situations that demand a reaction to see what happens.  

Think of the gym/track/pool/outdoors as a laboratory where you can set the conditions to test yourself and then process the results. The stakes are lower than at work, and you can put yourself in situations that test your mettle to see how you react. You take yourself everywhere you go, and it is unlikely that you’ll be a completely different person at the office than you are at the gym. In fact, challenging physical activities can strip away your masks and reveal your true nature.

Deliberately putting yourself in difficult or uncomfortable situations offers the opportunity to see what you are made of. And it only makes sense that how you react in one challenging situation will be a strong indicator of how you’ll react in all challenging situations. Allow yourself the opportunity to improve physically, and you’ll undoubtedly see a corresponding improvement in other areas.

This technique requires that you select activities that feel just a bit out of reach. It does not mean going out to conquer a marathon when you haven’t run a step in six years or trying to match your bench press record from high school after taking a 10-year hiatus from lifting weights. It means choosing challenges that are slightly beyond your current capacity, things that make you feel just a bit nervous and unsure whether you’ll be able to do it – think of it as pushing just beyond the edges of your comfort zone. When you reach the edge, you’ll have a choice about how to react.  

This is where the growth happens. Every time you push your threshold just a bit further you strengthen your ability to push it again. Doing this under physical duress is effective because you deliberately increase your discomfort and decrease your ability to think clearly. You create the conditions to examine and improve your reactions.

Every leader has a mandate to know yourself and seek self-improvement. Taking on challenging physical fitness endeavors is one universally accessible way to do both. And it doesn’t just make you better in the gym, it makes you better in general.

Are you interested in applying physical exercise to your leadership development? Book a complimentary consultation with Luminology here.