Fit to Lead: The Proven 8-Week Solution for Shaping Up Your Body, Your Mind, and Your Career

By Christopher P. Neck, Tedd L. Mitchell, Charles C. Manz and Emmet C. Thompson, II

A proven program to help busy executives get Fit to Lead.

Are you a leader at work, at the expense of your health? Did you give up exercise after college, and stop watching your diet when you made it to senior partner? Are too little sleep, fast food, and a hectic, catch-up lifestyle all you allow yourself?

This proven, simple program is based on the sound principles that have helped thousands of top executives, including President George W. Bush, get - and stay - in shape. The results are not just looking and feeling better, but performing better on the job, becoming a more effective leader, and inspiring others to follow your lead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Feb 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781466864337

Christopher P. Neck

Christopher P. Neck, PH.D. is an expert on employee/executive fitness. He frequently consults Fortune 500 companies and is often quoted in The Wall Street Journal. He is co-author of Fit to Lead: The Proven 8-Week Solution for Shaping Up Your Body, Your Mind, and Your Career.

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Introduction

Meeting the Challenge of Being Fit to Lead

Physical fitness is the basis for all other forms of excellence.

—John F. Kennedy

Are more fit leaders better leaders? Before you answer, consider the following scenario.

A senior executive of a Fortune 100 company (perhaps it’s you), after only five hours of sleep, arrives at her office very early. Numerous meetings and phone calls later, she realizes that it’s already two P.M. and she has not eaten anything since an early breakfast of coffee and donuts.

She heads out the door to grab some lunch. As she walks to the restaurant, she recalls her days as a runner a few years back and how good it felt to be in shape. Now, given her busy schedule, she rarely exercises. Halfway to the restaurant, she notices a group of runners approaching at a brisk pace. She thinks she recognizes a fit-looking middle-aged man. Who is he—he looks so familiar, and how does he find the time to fit in exercise in his day? He must be unemployed! Then as they reach each other, he notices her stare and smiles at her. Her jaw drops as she finally realizes who he is.

Now it’s time to play Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The middle-aged man in the scenario above is a:

(a) past Olympic runner

(b) professional triathlete

(c) fitness trainer

(d) well-recognized corporate CEO

What is your answer?

Are you ready?

Is this your final answer? The correct answer is d.

Surprisingly, at a time when most Americans find a plethora of reasons not to exercise, some of the busiest people in the country, people who arguably have the most frenetic and grueling schedules of anyone in the world, make fitness a top priority. In fact, current and former presidents, including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, as well as former vice President Al Gore, exercised regularly. Running and physical fitness has almost become a prerequisite for a term in the Oval Office!

In addition to these leaders of the free world, a growing number of CEOs and other business executives are putting fitness first in their lives.

The list of top-level executives who make fitness a priority reads like Who’s Who. Consider these examples:

• Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza and current chairman of the Mater Christi Foundation, runs about four miles or uses the StairMaster every day. He also spends thirty minutes on the Nautilus machines, alternating upper and lower body every other day. When traveling he does push-ups and crunches along with running. He consumes about two thousand calories a day, and does not eat any desserts or sweets.

• James Harris, vice president of player personnel for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguers, exercises three to four days per week. His regimen consists of twenty to thirty minutes on the treadmill or a brisk walk outdoors, some weight work, stretching, and bike riding. He avoids fried foods, red meat, and eating after seven P.M.

• Michael Mangum, president of the Mangum Group, performs some form of cardiovascular exercise such as running two hours per week, and he lifts weights two to three times a week. He also tries to minimize fat and cholesterol while maximizing fruit intake.

• Dina Gartland, a partner at age thirty-one at the geotechnical firm Leighton & Associates, is out of bed at five A.M. to train three hours as a triathlete before starting her long workday.

• Dr. Thomas Frist Jr., chairman and CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare, uses time between business flights to jog around airports or nearby cities.

• Charles O. Rossotti, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, jogs five miles a day.

• Julian C. Day, president and CEO of Kmart, runs half marathons and surfs.¹

According to various surveys, many more executives are indeed placing a priority on their physical fitness. A survey of executives from the top three thousand U.S. companies (identified from Fortune 500, the Inc. 100, the Venture Fast Track 100, and Dun’s List of Large and Small Companies) revealed that two-thirds of the executives exercised at least three times weekly, with more than 90 percent of that group using aerobic exercise as the cornerstone of their workouts. Also, more than 90 percent reported being careful about their diet, 81 percent had a complete physical exam within the previous two years, and only 10 percent of the executives smoked (compared with the national average of more than 25 percent).²

Why are so many extremely busy and powerful executives placing fitness at the top of their priorities list? Because regular exercise and healthy eating not only helps improve their health, it also bolsters their job performance—and ultimately their careers.

On-the-Job Fitness

We all hear about the health benefits of staying fit—the reduced incidence of heart disease, lower cancer risk, better weight control, and so on. But few people mention a rather compelling benefit, one that hits people right in their wallets and pocketbooks. The more fit you are, the better your likelihood of performing well on the job.

Fitness has serious positive benefits for executives, the companies they represent, and the employees who work for them. During the past thirty-two years, we’ve tracked the success of more than twenty-five thousand executives who have participated in Executive Lifestyle evaluations at the Cooper