Feeling the burn?

Whether you’re scaling mountains, racing cars or going to the gym, undertaking some form of healthy activity will not only help you to combat rising stress levels, you might actually live longer too. Marc Barber talks to entrepreneurs about how they stay fit for business

Traditionally, adrenalin and fitness junkies have been revered in the US and treated with disdain in the UK. But times change and the ranks of the furiously fit and tirelessly active are now swelling on these shores.

Simon Dolan, the CEO of SJD Accountancy, falls into the category of adrenalin junkie, enjoying nothing better than racing at breakneck speeds: ‘When you start driving round the track as fast as the car will possibly go, you can’t think about anything else.

‘It’s the only time in my life when I don’t think about my family or business – I’m 100 per cent focused on driving the car to its limits. That’s a fantastic feeling and a wonderful way to switch off.’

The ultra-energetic CEO of voice-to-text company SpinVox, Christina Domecq, flies helicopters, kite-surfs, paraglides and scales mountains to relax. She encourages her staff to have an equally all-action approach to life. ‘My philosophy is that everyone is at their best when driven, and I encourage all my team to amaze themselves,’ she declares, adding that she often goes for 12-mile bike rides to work in the morning.

Turn on, tune in, drop out
Other business leaders like to go to the gym, be subjected to temperatures as low as -135ºC – known as Kriotherapy – or, more humbly, to put their feet up and follow the latest episode of “Corrie”. Lois Jacobs, the CEO of design and branding agency Fitch, likes to catch up with her soaps and shows such as The X-Factor to relax, along with the occasional tango session when she isn’t flying around the world. Watching soaps is, she admits, shameless escapism, while dancing is a pleasure simply because it’s instinctive and ‘uses a completely different part of your brain’.

Steve Grout, the CEO for direct marketing agency TargetBase Claydon Heeley likes running and regularly posts sub-three-hour marathon times. He notes that, after going for a run, he feels more relaxed about work: ‘A lot of what goes round in my head that had struck me as being problematic either disappears or doesn’t seem quite so bad.’

If you’re a rock star, it may indeed be better to burn out than fade away, but the same cannot be said for entrepreneurs. For those CEOs who work from dawn till dusk, steering clear of the gym and preferring to unwind with a bottle of wine, burn-out becomes a real possibility as the years go by.

The scientific arguments in favour of exercise are overwhelming, and yet the state of the UK population’s health is almost as ruinous as its finances. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence says physical inactivity in England costs an estimated £8.2 billion each year through the direct costs of treating related diseases, and money lost through sickness and absence.

At present, around 65 per cent of men and 76 per cent of women in England do not achieve the recommended level of activity for health (simply to accumulate 30 minutes of moderate exercise, such as a walk, on five or more days of the week). Lack of exercise contributes to coronary heart disease, diabetes, obesity and some cancers. In addition to this, it exacerbates stress-related illnesses such as depression and anxiety, which are major factors in absence from work (see table).

Rat race
People spend over 60 per cent of their waking hours at work – that figure will obviously be higher if you run your own business. Jon Denoris, who runs the health and fitness consultancy Club 51, recommends people spend two to three hours keeping in shape. ‘You should be exercising most days of the week, unless there is a genuine reason why you can’t,’ he says. ‘Often, clients tell me that time is the biggest barrier to exercise, which I don’t necessarily accept as an excuse.’

Keeping fit will improve the mind and the body, insists Denoris. ‘An increasing amount of research shows that exercise can act as an inoculator to stress, although the nature of that exercise will differ for everyone. For some people it might involve a tai chi class or a yoga class, which can help to reduce cortisol [stress hormone] levels,’ he explains. ‘One of the bizarre things to note is that exercise in itself is a form of stress, but it helps to improve your tolerance of stress over the long term. In the same way that muscles are built up by breaking down and then reforming the protein in those muscles during exercise, the neurons in your brain “strengthen” and so you are better able to cope. Being active and healthy can really help with managing mental health.’

Health, not fitness
One of the key points here is that being healthy shouldn’t be confused with becoming a keep fit fanatic. Neil Shah, a director at The Stress Management Society, observes that getting off the bus a stop earlier or ensuring you go for a stroll during a lunch break can make a difference. The danger is that if you keep working long hours and have no outlet or release then your stress levels will augment, making you less effective in the workplace and leading to problems in your personal life.

‘Stress is a natural response to a dangerous situation. We were never designed to stay in a stressful state for extended periods of times,’ notes Shah. If you’re living in a state of constant pressure, then it will inevitably begin to take its toll. Symptoms include impaired forward planning and creative thought, digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhoea and constipation, and a lowered or non-existent sex drive. ‘When you are stressed, all the non-essential functions begin to shut down,’ states Shah.

The classic “stress beaters” like alcohol, coffee, nicotine and refined sugar products (chocolate), only serve to provide a short burst of energy which ultimately proves self-defeating, leaving you lethargic, enervated, knackered. The trick is to switch off completely and not do anything. Even watching TV or reading a newspaper are misguided, according to Shah, as you’re still “doing something”. ‘Ten minutes of proper relaxation every day can reduce your chances of a heart attack by 35 per cent,’ observes Shah.

Nose to the grindstone
Countless entrepreneurs announce “I’m a workaholic” as if it’s a good thing, but how many of them will be spending their hard-earned pennies on healthcare as opposed to enjoying life? Moreover, is it a coincidence that we work some of the longest hours in Europe and have a suitably chart-topping divorce rate to match?

David Jensen, who is now the CEO of interim management firm Brooklands Executives, realised he was paying too high a price for climbing the corporate ladder. ‘I was a divisional director of a global corporation and the stress was killing me. The position required that I fly all over the world and work long hours, but it was the internal politics in particular that was causing me personally an awful amount of stress. I got to the point where I didn’t believe I would see 50 unless I got out by 40.’

On the day Jensen’s share options matured he quit and then arranged to go jungle trekking in Costa Rica for three months. ‘I came back weighing two and a half stone lighter and my hair had grown back from its stress-related alopecia.’ After working for a boss in the recruitment industry who was ‘entirely non-political and highly motivational’, he went on to set up his own business – a decision he’s never regretted.

Getting a sense of satisfaction from your work evidently makes a difference. Rami Avidan, CEO of network provider Wyless, is one of those self-confessed workaholics and he seems anything but burnt out. ‘The first thing I find is that you must enjoy what you do and have fun. Nobody’s going to die if you fail – that’s the first thing for me,’ he says.

Avidan is now running his third business at the age of 33 and regularly works 15 hours a day and only takes two breaks. ‘During Christmas and New Year I take ten days off and shut down my phone and email, and I spend that time with my family. During the summer I take off two weeks and the phone is actually off.’

‘Tools of liberation’
Jensen may have quit the corporate meat grinder, but as a chief exec he still has to work long hours and doesn’t subscribe to the “switch everything off” approach when on holiday. ‘In the entrepreneurial world, you find that CEOs are often workaholics, and I very rarely take my foot off the pedal. No matter where I am, whether it’s relaxing on my farm or sitting in the Middle East doing a deal, my BlackBerry and mobile are on.

‘I see them as tools of liberation rather than tools of enslavement. I don’t believe I would be able to escape and do the things I do without these devices as they make me accessible 24/7. Curiously, it’s a means to rest and relaxation as if you feel like getting away, you are able to do so. Having that freedom to make those personal choices is very de-stressing, even, curiously enough, if you don’t exercise that freedom.’

Retaining that sense of control over what you’re doing appears to be important. However, the evidence and anecdotes suggest that for those who are working from morning to night, there has to be an outlet of some kind. ‘If you are working 12 or 13 hours a day, you’re not working effectively and you do go on autopilot. You don’t come up with anything innovative and ultimately you get fed up and burn out,’ says SJD’s Dolan.

Richard Gilder now runs Intercept IT after being made CEO this year. A single parent, he says it’s essential to try and stick to five-day weeks so he can spend time with his daughters of 12 and 15.

‘I have a two-hour commute on the train and I can do work then, which is useful,’ he says. ‘I endeavour never to miss a sports day or match that either of the two girls are involved in. To do that, I’m prepared to stop working for a few hours and then start again later that evening. I’m very happy to be flexible. You need to get the balance right.’

Top Five Causes of Absence (white-collar workers)

Cause	Average*
Stress	65.8
Acute medical conditions (e.g. stroke, heart attack, cancer)	59.9
Mental ill health	51.4
Musculoskeletal injuries (e.g. neck strains and repetitive strain injury but excluding back pain)	42.4
Back pain	41.7
Recurring medical conditions (e.g. asthma/angina and allergies)	34.9
* Respondents (%) citing this as a leading cause

Source: The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development