Research: Sleep Deprivation Is a Leadership Problem

At 8:40 a.m. on a Friday, a leadership team gathers to make the biggest call of its quarter. The CEO hasn’t had enough sleep all week, but nobody knows that, because she arrived energized, with a coffee in her hand, performing alertness the way many senior leaders learn to do. She’s far from the only one in the room performing alertness, though. Many of the others in the room are hiding their own sleep deprivation—which means the decision they’re all about to make may be shaped as much by the sleep they’ve lost this week as by the analysis in front of them.