高管也要常流汗

    在上月举行的沃顿领导力研讨会上，德勤（Deloitte）的人才开发总管比尔•佩尔斯特隆重推出该公司新建的领导力学校：德勤大学。该校位于德州Westlake，简称为“DFit”的健身房面积1.2万平方英尺，是这座耗资3亿美元的设施中的重要建筑。

    DFit不仅仅是一个便利设施，它在培训计划中也起到关键作用。某些面向顶级高管的计划要求参加者清晨6点就起床到体育馆锻炼，然后再开始领导力培训。“就是想让他们出点汗，”佩尔斯特说，还要让他们学习出差时的锻炼技巧。最初，头头脑脑们会抱怨太早就被叫醒了，但在计划结束之后的反馈中，大多数人认为健身项目绝对应该保留。

    好吧，人们在开动脑筋前喜欢到健身器械上活动活动，但健身是否真的能让人成为更好的领导？确实有这方面的正面证据。下面是一个极端的例子：根据作家兼企业家查尔斯•加西亚所著的《白宫大佬领导经验谈》（Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows）一书，戴维•彼得雷乌斯将军（现任中央情报局局长）声称身体强健是优秀领导的最重要品质。彼得雷乌斯将军当时是驻伊拉克的多国联军部队总司令，他带领部下每天进行75分钟的强化锻炼，包括俯卧撑、引体向上和冲刺，目的是为了让他们冲破体能极限。我们大多数人恐怕都不能承受这样的严酷训练。

    不过即使不在彼得雷乌斯将军手下训练，我们也能受益于他的战略，那就是通过共度难关来培养团队精神和坚毅品质。领导者通常就会在这样的严峻形势下脱颖而出。这也是大学招生委员会熟知的法则：比如说，如果你想申请罗德奖学金（该奖学金享誉世界，获奖者得到在牛津大学学习机会，其中包括美国前总统克林顿——译注），运动员的经历就会给你加分。一个人运动生涯表明他有足够的精力和纪律去克服困难，取得成功。

    那是因为运动在挑战个人体能极限的同时，还能揭示人的真实面目。任何人在空调办公室里都会显得镇定自若，但是如果一个人在大汗淋漓、乳酸水平飙升的时候还能保持团队精神，他肯定不是一般人。这样的人往往能在公司下一次面临危机时带领大家从容应对。

    但大多数人都没有时间或者体力去坚持每天的基本训练。即便如此，只要保持简单的经常性锻炼就能帮助我们培养良好的领导品质。根据美国著名的医学中心梅奥诊所（Mayo Clinic）的研究，每周三天、每天30分钟的锻炼就会导致在体内和大脑释放化学物质，帮助提升免疫系统活力，还能防止某些抑郁症状，保持清晰思考和胜任工作的能力。越来越多的研究表明，锻炼确实能帮助人体生长新的脑细胞，增强记忆，还可能延缓老年痴呆症之类疾病的症状。

    “在我们这个职业服务领域，加班加点是家常便饭，”佩尔斯特说。“我们也经常出差。如果在这样的工作安排下还能抽出时间来锻炼，那你肯定具备长期抗压工作的能力。”

    软件公司SAS的领导课程效仿了人类绩效研究所（Human Performance Institute）的“公司运动员（Corporate Athlete）”培训计划。该课程名为“高效领导力及精力（Leadership and Energy for Performance）”，简称LE4P。90天强化培训的目的就是让学员学会如何调节个人精力，实现高效领导。最初这项计划仅面向顶级高管，现在也慢慢向下延伸。目前约有50名SAS员工已经完成该课程，很多学员还成为了热心的倡导者。

    他们看起来精力充沛，强健的身体起到很大作用，作为SAS人才管理和领导力培养团队的一员，克里斯•滕斯托尔说：“在锻炼的当天，他们效率更高，注意力更集中。”而另一个好处是，“他们在锻炼中不断突破自我，然后把那种韧劲也带到工作当中。”

    At a Wharton leadership conference last month, Deloitte's managing principal of talent development, Bill Pelster, was showing off his company's new leadership school in Westlake, Texas, called Deloitte University. A key piece of real estate on the $300 million facility, he said, is DU's 12,000 square-foot fitness room, called "DFit" for short.

    DFit is not just an amenity. It plays a key role in Deloitte's training programs, Pelster says. Some of the university's programs for top executives require participants to wake up at 6:00 in the morning and hit the gym before starting the leadership training part of the itinerary. "The intent is to get them into a good sweat," Pelster says, and also expose them to techniques for working out when they travel. At first, the leaders might complain about the early wake-up call, but most of them say, in their feedback after the program, that the fitness portion should definitely stay.

    So people enjoy hitting up the elliptical before working their grey matter, but does exercise actually make people better leaders? There's evidence that it does.

    It's an extreme example, but General David Petraeus (who currently heads the CIA) reportedly said that physical fitness was the most important trait for good leadership, according to author and entrepreneur Charles Garcia's Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows. Granted, Petraeus, who was then the commanding general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, led his troops through a 75-minute daily regimen of push-ups, pull-ups, and wind sprints designed to push the group beyond the point of exhaustion. Most of us could not keep up with that routine.

    But you don't have to train under Petraeus to benefit from his strategy, which is to cultivate teamwork and toughness by putting people through a rough situation together. Leaders tend to emerge from such situations. It's something that admissions committees have known for a long time -- if you want to be a Rhode's Scholar, for example, athletic experience is a mark in your favor. Having played sports is a good indicator that an applicant has enough energy and discipline to hack it.

    But most of us don't have the time or brute strength to go through a basic training routine every morning. Even so, the simple act of scheduling regular workouts can help develop good leadership traits. According to the Mayo Clinic, 30 minutes of exercise a day for three days a week will release chemicals in the body and brain to help boost the immune system and stave off some effects of depression, certainly a drain on a person's ability to think clearly and work well. There's also a growing body of research that exercise can actually help generate new brain cells, improving memory, and perhaps delaying the effects of diseases such as Alzheimer's.

    "Being in professional services, we work incredible hours," says Pelster. "We also tend to travel a lot. The individuals who can do that and still exercise, they can handle the pressure of this life for the long-term."

    Software company SAS modeled its leadership course after the Human Performance Institute's "Corporate Athlete" training program. SAS' course is called "Leadership and Energy for Performance," or LE4P. It's a 90-day intensive training on how to manage energy to lead effectively. At first, the program was only open to top SAS executives. Now it's trickling down the organization; about 50 SAS employees have completed it so far and many of LE4P graduates have become somewhat evangelical about the experience.

    They seem super energized, and fitness plays a big part in that, says Chris Tunstall, part of the talent management and leadership development team at SAS. "The days that they work out, they're much more productive, they're much more focused." Another benefit is, "they come out of their comfort zone, [then] they can take that mental toughness and put that in a business situation," Tunstall claims.