Leaders Need to Take a Holistic Approach. That Starts With Looking Inward

I recently met with a very successful CEO and asked how happy he was on a scale from 0 to 10. He began answering, “In business, I’m…” I interrupted him. “No, not business—how happy are you?” After a pause, he realized he hadn’t considered the question. Isn’t it crazy how well the Industrial Age trained us to separate business from life? We are one person, living one life. At some point, it starts, and at some point, it ends. 

The widespread failure of many leaders and professionals to understand that might go some way to explain some of the problems we face today. Something isn’t working. CEO tenures have dropped to record lows, turnover rates have soared after the “Great Resignation,” and loneliness has been declared a public health epidemic in the U.S. Leaders are burning out faster than ever. In our “25/8 always-on” world, leaders I speak to say they feel like they’re skiing ahead of an avalanche that’s getting closer every second.

The solution is a holistic approach. I always thought of leaders as high-performance athletes. Then I looked at my favorite sport, tennis, and noticed an opposing phenomenon. Athletes have been staying on top longer, improving with age, and extending their careers. Just look at Roger Federer or Serena Williams. What have they done differently? 

They have focused on optimizing their energy level. Being physically fit isn’t enough. They were looking at the body, mind and soul. It’s not just about the hours on the court, but the person as a whole. Today’s leaders can learn a lot from this.

The Inner Game

Today, physical energy is reasonably well understood among leaders. But emotional, mental, and certainly spiritual energy are at best acknowledged, rarely consciously practiced.  

Few understand that you can be in full control of your emotions with little training and boost your energy quickly.

When I talk to people about mental focus, it sometimes induces eyerolls, until I tell the story of the old shoemaker who had two sons. He sent them to different places where people didn’t wear shoes to assess the market. The first son said, “Father, bad news. Everyone here is barefoot—there’s no market for shoes.” The second son said, “Great news! Everyone here is barefoot—we have a huge market for shoes.” What we focus on, how we interpret the world, and what we choose to see, determines the outcome. Negative thoughts drain energy; positive ones boost it. You can train your mind to focus on the positive.

Mentioning spiritual energy makes people want to leave the conversation immediately. Someone recently even asked me: Is a CEO allowed to meditate and take time for reflection? My answer to that question is: Do you just want to keep mindlessly running? Spiritual energy is about meaning and fulfillment. Can you call your life a life without it?

And constantly running does not work. Even the best will burn out, if they do not regularly recharge. But they know how to recharge fast. Tennis provides a useful analogy once again. The men’s Grand Slam finals last on average 2.5 hours, up to nearly 6 hours. Yet players like Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal remain in peak form. How? Between points, they use micro-recovery techniques—routines triggered by bouncing or squeezing the ball—to mentally reset, all within the 20 seconds the rules allow. These quick resets are highly effective, and we can all learn similar techniques to renew our energy in seconds.

And most important for business and life: Purpose—it is like a laser for energy. As Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Purpose has been debated throughout human history. Your purpose is deeply personal. It can change over time. You can have more than one. And it’s often more about the journey than a destination. 

A phrase that can be helpful with this is Memento Mori—remember you must die! Reflecting on life’s brevity is a powerful way to connect with purpose. As a little food for thought, among the top five regrets of the dying are a wish that they’d had the courage to live a life true to themselves, not the life others expected of them. Others include the wish that they hadn’t worked so hard, had stayed connected with friends, allowed themselves to express their feelings or had let themselves be happier. 

All of this is part of what I call the “Inner Game.” It’s about fueling yourself with energy and focus, to power whatever you want to achieve. Once your Inner Game is strong, you can turn to your “Outer Game.” 

Applying the mindset to business

Almost all great businesses start with a compelling vision. Walt Disney saw Disneyland before we did. Bill Gates envisioned a computer on every desk before it became a reality. Jeff Bezos began with the idea of Earth’s biggest bookstore and quickly pivoted to the planet’s biggest everything store. Vision inspires purpose in the workforce.

But businesses can lose sight of their vision. During my time at Siemens Medical, when the business was struggling, I invited a woman whose life had been saved by our equipment to speak at an all-hands meeting. She thanked the engineers and technicians who had worked on the machines, and I watched as some of the toughest people I knew were moved to tears. That night, the head of the labor union said, “Thank you for giving us our soul back.” Vision and purpose are the soul of any great business.

Execution, however, is where vision comes to life. You need a competitive advantage—something better or cheaper than the competition. And you need a process to turn an idea into cash in the bank. Attention to detail matters, especially at the top.

Agility is crucial, especially as change is constant. The only sustainable competitive advantage is your talent and how they work together. Think of it like soccer—my favorite sport. It’s not the team of stars that wins, but the star team. Five pillars create this magic: trust, healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and a focus on results. My mantra is simple: Nobody is perfect, but a team can be.

Leadership is about power and influence. Take the toolbox of the carrot and the stick. Today, the “carrot” has grown more important in a world where top talent is fiercely contested. That’s not just about money. One of the most fundamental aspects of leading is respect. Everyone deserves respect and showing it can be a simple act that has an outsized impact. A man who cleaned the office bathroom once shook my hand, thanking me for acknowledging him. “Most people just look through me,” he said. That struck me like a lightning bolt. 

Finally, leadership at the top can be lonely. You need ways to get to the truth fast, empower your team to think for themselves, and avoid letting other people’s problems land on your shoulders.

If you rise high enough, you’ll be dealing with a board—groups of people with their own dynamics. In my experience, boards have two stable states: they either love you or they want you gone. Staying attuned to the board’s pulse is critical before a small issue becomes a tidal wave that sweeps you away.

These are just a few insights into the Outer Game. The better your Inner Game, the more energy you have, to shape a great Outer Game—not just in business, but in your life.