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“If you want to get to know Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen,”USA Today wrote not long ago, “grab your running shoes.” Van Paasschen, welearn, regularly logs ten-mile runs. He has also completed twelve marathons.Running has deeply informed his leadership style, teaching him to set high stan-dards and push himself to the limit as he leads a global hotel chain.

Starwood’s board chairman, Bruce Duncan, told the newspaper that VanPaasschen’s commitment to running “shows someone who’s tenacious, someone

who has a plan and gets it done.” It’s truethat individuals’ athletic endeavors can indi-cate a great deal about their character andabilities. At CCL, our research has turned up

another important truth: exercise can actually help people become better leaderswho sustain success over the long haul.

Through the Leadership at the Peak program conducted in Colorado Springs,Colorado, CCL has worked with hundreds of top-level corporate, military, non-profit, and educational leaders from around the world. In exploring how theseexceptionally talented men and women can become even more successful, CCLhas found that effective leadership and regular exercise are strongly linked.Executives who exercise are rated significantly higher by their co-workers ontheir leadership effectiveness than are those who don’t exercise. In fact, exercis-ers score better than nonexercisers in all leadership categories, including organi-zation, credibility, leading others, and authenticity.

As leaders move higher in their organizations, exercise becomes even moreessential to managing a familiar daily enemy: excessive stress. “Executives willoften comment that since their promotion to top management they no longer exer-cise regularly, have gained twenty pounds, and their cholesterol levels and bloodpressure have gone up,” says CCL faculty member and fitness guru SharonMcDowell-Larsen, who helps Leadership at the Peak participants assess their fit-ness. “It’s a bit of a catch-22: good health and fitness are important for meeting thedemands of the job, yet health is often sacrificed because of the rigors of the job.”

Van Paasschen has clearly found a way to make room for fitness in his dailyroutine. And he’s in good company. BusinessWeek reported in 1995 on theworld’s “fittest CEOs,” who were dedicating themselves to sailing, running, bicy-cling, and even surfing. Among those named were Larry Ellison of Oracle,Richard Branson of Virgin Group, and Sky Dayton of SK-EarthLink.

Other leaders who know the value of staying fit include Steve Reinemund, anavid runner who was CEO of PepsiCo before moving just down the road fromCCL’s Greensboro, North Carolina, headquarters to become dean of Wake ForestUniversity’s Babcock Graduate School of Management.

My own modest daily five-mile run pales in comparison to the regimens ofsome of these individuals. But we can probably all agree that staying in shapeprofoundly boosts energy, stamina, and overall health. With those fundamentalsin place, you are well on your way to both sustaining leadership success andenhancing the quality of your life.

John R. Ryan, president and CEO, CCL

From the President