Poor Sleep Leads to Ineffective Leadership

Many people suffer from insomnia. Leaders suffer more – particularly in their relationships and effectiveness. There are two reasons why leaders suffer more: Poor sleep a) depletes leaders’ abilities to keep their temper and b) influences how followers evaluate leaders.

Christopher Barnes, an organizational behavior scholar at University of Washington, conducted a series of studies focusing on the relationship between sleep and leadership. Barnes and his colleagues found a lot of evidence that when leaders had poor sleep, they were meaner to their subordinates [1], less inspiring and less sincere about what they said [2].

In a study [1], leaders and followers were asked to complete one survey per day individually for two weeks (only workdays). On the surveyed days, leaders reported their sleep quality (the number of awakening hours during sleep, if any) and quantity (the total amount of time slept); whereas followers rated their leaders’ hostile behaviors. Results showed that leaders with poor sleep quality (longer awakening hours) felt psychologically drained and were further perceived to be more “moody.” If they don’t sleep well, leaders are less able to self-control and thus act inappropriately at work. Interestingly, sleep quantity does not influence leaders’ behaviors. Only sleep quality does.

Beyond not being able to control their hostile behaviors, poor sleep quality also impairs leaders’ abilities to genuinely feel what they convey. In an experimental study [2], participants were asked to play the role of a student body leader who delivered a speech in the commencement ceremony. Raters who were double-blind (a double-blind study means neither the participants nor researchers are aware who is in the test group vs control group) to the research purpose compared the speeches by their content and style of expressions. Results showed that sleep-deprived participants’ speeches were rated less inspiring than non-deprived participants’ speeches. Furthermore, sleep-deprived participants said that they were unable to actually experience the emotions they needed to show, and such inability explains why the speeches were less inspiring.

The other problem with poor sleep is not with leaders — but followers. Sleep-deprived followers rated leaders as less charismatic than the non-deprived followers [2]. Thus far, we know that poor sleep impairs people’s ability to inspire others as well as to be inspired.

As sleep quality inhibits inspiring behaviors and reinforces hostile behaviors, a good night’s sleep not only benefits your health but also your leadership. To get proper rest, we recommend staying away from your cell phone and late-night indulgences, such as exciting movies. The lack of stimulation will give your mind and brain a better chance to rest and replenish.

1. Barnes, C. M., Lucianetti, L., Bhave, D. P., & Christian, M. S. (2015). “You wouldn’t like me when I’m sleepy”: Leaders’ sleep, daily abusive supervision, and work unit engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 58(5), 1419-1437.
2. Barnes, C. M., Guarana, C. L., Nauman, S., & Kong, D. T. (2016). Too tired to inspire or be inspired: Sleep deprivation and charismatic leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(8), 1191-1199.

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