“When leaders feel their best, they perform their best, impacting the results for the whole organization.”

why E²D Performance

Throughout my career, I was like most successful professionals - driven to succeed and consumed by work. Nearly 20 years ago, I made my first of what has since become an annual trip to Canyon Ranch. This short little trip had a significant impact on me. The experience allowed me to disconnect from the daily pressures and to focus on myself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually during a very stressful time in my life.

Coming off of those 4 days, I felt physically strong, emotionally optimistic, mentally focused and spiritually connected. I was happy, on top of the world, full of new ideas, and completely unstoppable. Nothing could get in my way.  

Although going back to a highly stressful work and world setting (2 weeks after 9/11), I was energized and excited to go back to work. It was at that moment that I realized Corporate America had it completely wrong – If we just allowed our employees to disconnect every once and awhile and empowered them to take care of their health, imagine how much more engaged and productive our workplaces would be.

investment in health leads to optimal performance

Based on how I felt, I made a commitment to prioritize my health and return to Canyon Ranch every year. Overtime, I found my experiences not only changed me personally, but more importantly they changed me professionally. 

The more I learned and incorporated into my life to take care of me, the more it flowed into the workforce and changed the way I led myself, my teams and my organizations. As my behaviors changed, my teams felt empowered to do the same.

These behaviors became instrumental to sustaining and improving our individual, team and organizational performance despite whatever personal and professional challenges came our way. I am proud to say that the teams I had the honor to lead were some of, if not the, highest performing teams in the organizations I was a part of.

A Personal Tragedy

It was 2013 and I needed a break. I needed to recharge. This was a year I needed my Canyon Ranch trip more than ever, but work was too busy….so I canceled. 

While I canceled the trip, I still went to Tucson for the weekend to visit my family. My older brother Scott, who lived in Tucson, was training for an 80-mile bike ride. He went out for his Sunday morning training ride, and we were waiting for his call to meet for breakfast.

Unfortunately, the call never came. Scott had a heart attack on his ride. Scott was 52 and died of sudden cardiac arrest on September 15, 2013.

Scott’s death was a pivotal moment for me. I was hit squarely between the eyes that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. With that revelation, I asked myself: Are you living your best life? The answer was clearly “no”. I had let work overtake the most important people and things in my life and I was not giving of my time and talents to the people and things that mattered most.  I had veered off my path. Scott’s death was my wake-up call.

Changing the Health Landscape of Kansas City

I left my corporate role in 2015 with the desire to help change the health landscape of Kansas City. I love Kansas City but recognize we, like many other communities, have a long way to go to achieve optimal health and wellness of our citizens.  Unhealthy environments and behaviors are too common, leading to unhealthy results – with obesity leading the way. Obesity leads to outcomes like heart disease, cancer and diabetes, as well as mental and emotional health issues.

Importantly, when we are not well it also has a significant economic impact on our community. When we are not well, we don’t perform our best, translating to sub-optimal overall performance of our companies and our community.

Using Well-being as a Leadership Tool

I believe we can change all of this. I believe companies in our community have a significant role to play. We spend the majority of our waking hours inside our companies and if they have not created an environment where it is a priority to take care of our health then they are part of the problem.

I want companies to be part of the solution. I believe it takes one company, one leader, one employee, one family at a time to drive this change.

While companies believe they are helping by implementing wellness approaches, the traditional wellness programs that have been put in place for years have not lived up to expectations. They leave it to the individual to power through and to rely upon their own self-discipline and willpower in a world that does not support the behaviors needed to take good care of our health. 

I know there are many other leaders out there putting in the hours. They are tired.  They don’t have time. They are waiting for some future event for everything to slow down so they can take better care of themselves. They know they are not at their best. However, to make radical change they likely either  have to “experience” the benefit or something catastrophic has to happen. Let’s avoid the catastrophe. 

I want to lead leaders to the “experience” so they can be the best they can be, impacting themselves first, role modeling for their companies, families, and friends and improving the performance of their companies and ultimately our beloved Kansas City community.