The ROI of CEO Wellness: Why Your Health Is Your Company’s Hidden Asset

“I’m going to die at my desk.”

CEOs tend to speak frankly to Vistage speaker and leadership coach Becky Sharpe, but one SMB leader laid it out starker than most. The CEO approached Sharpe after she had given a talk and confided that not only did he not prioritize his own wellness, but he actively ignored it.

“He justifies his lack of movement and his poor nutrition with a bias that, without him, nothing happens” at his company, says Sharpe, who is also CEO and Owner of International Scholarship and Tuition Services and author of “Three Words” and “Just Live.” “There is going to be no ROI on his work because he is literally going to work himself to death.”

That CEO is not alone. A Wall Street Journal/Vistage survey of business leaders found that 25% experienced daily or frequent burnout, with another 44% reporting occasional feelings of being overwhelmed. Research now connects the dots between CEO health and company health. One study found that for small firms, a slight shift in a business leader’s mental health can predict an economically significant change in operating performance of around 0.49%.

In this environment, Sharpe and others caution CEOs to stop treating their health as a luxury. CEO wellness is not an indulgence; it’s a strategic advantage.

“One of my corporate clients recently hired me to work with his entire executive team because he recognizes the value of having his senior team be as engaged and healthy as possible,” says Jessica Pierce, a Vistage speaker and founder of The Longevity Architects.

From actionable CEO wellness tips to insights about how modeling their own health shapes their corporate culture, Sharpe and Pierce lay out 5 practical strategies for leaders who want to manage their organization’s future — as well as their own.

Step 1: Understand the Business Case for CEO Wellness

Q1 of 2025 saw a record 70% surge in CEO exits — and it’s easy to see why. Blackthorn.io CEO and Founder Chris Federspiel passionately wrote about his challenges with burnout and the consequences for his company. Other leaders have similarly revealed the dark side of overinvesting in everything but themselves.

Pierce says the costs of CEO illness — both mental and physical — include poor decision-making, fatigue and declining company morale. However, when CEOs prioritize their wellness, they and their organizations can thrive.

“Those that show up more cognizant and more patient lead a culture where — while they don’t do it dogmatically — they model prioritizing health,” Sharpe says. “It absolutely impacts their leadership skills.”

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson famously starts each morning with an ice bath, a game of tennis and a rigorous workout routine. Branson is also known for promoting a work-life balance that fuels a powerhouse of more than 400 companies across various sectors, including airlines, telecommunications, banking, hospitality, and space tourism. He tells employees, “The reality is, there is nothing more important than looking after yourself.”

Step 2: Prioritize CEO Health As an Investment

If CEO wellness sounds like just another task on the to-do list, it’s time to reframe how you view health. Too often, SMB leaders view self-care as selfish or non-essential, Pierce says. This causes leaders to prioritize others over themselves in the face of the constant firefighting endemic to the SMB environment.

“My very first client came to me because his doctor told him, ‘You’re dying.’ This was not a warm introduction,” Pierce says. “He said, ‘I don’t know what you can do, but my doctor said I had to call you.’”

Pierce says CEOs have come a long way since then, with many seeking out wellness insights of their own volition, for themselves as well as their organizations. But she still observes leaders who behave as though wellness extends beyond the entrepreneur culture of hustle and self-sacrifice.

When she speaks with Vistage groups, Pierce tries to help leaders understand wellness through the lens of investment.

“Most people started their retirement plans in their 20s. When I ask them, ‘Who has a longevity portfolio they’ve been investing in since their 20s?’ That’s not a concept that is mainstream to CEOs right now,” Pierce says. “But if we are going to save money for retirement, what are we doing to save our health for retirement? Because what is the point of building wealth if you don’t live long enough — or well enough — to enjoy it?”

Step 3: Find the Wellness Strategies That Work for You

At her management services company, Sharpe and her leadership team have adopted a wellness approach, recently engaging Pierce to analyze their blood to inform tailored wellness plans.

“They’ve lost weight. They’ve improved calm, without question, and meanwhile, our revenues are going up and our time at our desk is going down,” Sharpe says. “We’re working less and we’re earning more, which is all I want everybody to do.”

Using data-driven insights, Sharpe and Pierce have developed tactics for Sharpe’s leadership team to develop the daily foundations of health at work — that work:

1. Measure What Matters

Wearables and productivity-enhancing wellness tech are game-changers for data-driven CEOs to build better sleep, hydration, nutrition and movement routines that stick. “What is not tracked does not get managed,” Sharpe says. “I track everything I’m doing to maintain my health. There is a direct correlation between my physical health and the fiscal health of our company.”

2. Prioritize Sleep

“Entrepreneurs and CEOs seem to almost wear sleep deprivation as a badge of honor,” Pierce says. “The narrative needs to shift — yesterday. Nothing else works without sleep: Our decision quality, creativity, memory, and metabolism all suffer from sleep deprivation. It also shows up in our blood work, with elevated levels of inflammation, blood sugar, insulin, and cortisol, among others. Everything is worse with chronic sleep deprivation.”

Getting good quality sleep is easier said than done, but Pierce says that sleep hygiene — the habits that inform the quantity and quality of your sleep — makes a big difference. One tactic to consider for this evening: Turn off your devices two hours before bedtime. Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin and has a profound effect on our circadian rhythms, or internal clocks, delaying the onset of sleep. Can’t stop bringing your laptop to bed? “For CEOs who say they have to burn the midnight oil, I say at least get a pair of blue light filtering glasses,” Pierce says.

3. Reimagine Business Dinners

Alcohol and heavy meals eaten late at night affect the quality of your sleep, your weight and your blood sugar control. Pierce says that our culture of late-night business dinners might be less resistant to change than we think. “If you make a better choice — start earlier, drink water instead of alcohol — the chances are, everyone at the table is going to be relieved and join you,” she says.

Sharpe takes it a step further — literally — by encouraging “walking meetings” and modeling a focus on hydration. “I bought a hydrogen water bottle because hydrogen water supposedly is absorbed more fully and is a natural anti-inflammatory.”

4. Pay Attention to Your Mental Health

Mindfulness, executive therapy and stress management techniques can help a busy leadership team focus on what matters in the office — and be better spouses, partners and parents outside the office.

For Sharpe, mental health was linked to sleep. “I began to work on my schedule so that I never had a meeting unless it was absolutely urgent before 9 a.m.,” she says. “And all of a sudden, you know, my level of frustration during the day started to plummet. It was just like a P&L going from not being profitable to being profitable, and it came down to 25 minutes to an hour more of sleep at night.”

5. Watch Your Mouth

Science is uncovering a significant link between the mouth and body — oral bacteria has been found in the plaque tangled in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and in the clogged arteries of heart attack patients.

“There is such a connection between the bacteria, the gut microbiome and our brains,” Pierce says. “So getting obsessive with your oral hygiene and getting regular cleanings can really be a tremendous prevention tool.”

6. Take it on the Road

Traveling CEOs require a little extra discipline, Sharpe says.

“Meal plan, so you’re not tempted by the airport food court. I carry protein powder that I can throw into a water bottle and get what I need,” she says. “In terms of movement, all hotels have a workout area, so be disciplined and get up before your meetings or schedule time in the day to work out. It makes a big difference.”

7. Delegate

Not every CEO can “delegate almost to the point of abdication,” the way Warren Buffett advises. However, hiring people you trust — and then trusting them — is a winning strategy for both the CEO’s health and the health of the business.

Here, Vistage can help through Key Executive Groups and other programs that build your team’s leadership skills.

“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re going to die young and sick,” Sharpe says. “You have to surround yourself with people with skill sets you do not have. Also, stop doing $25-an-hour work. If you’re too busy to order your lunch, hire someone to do it.”

8. Put Your Doctor to Work

In her talk, “Become the CEO of Your Own Health,” Pierce advises leaders to remember that their doctor is just another service provider — one who works for them, not the other way around. She admits that it may be easy to psych yourself into an employer-employee headspace before entering the doctor’s office. But that power differential changes quickly when you’re in your underpants.

So, she advises CEOs to start by looking for doctors who view health through the lens of their goals rather than through co-pays, billable procedures and national statistics.

“I’ve seen clients who say, ‘I just got a clean bill of health from my doctor, but I don’t feel good.’ I explained to them that most doctors want you to be in the ‘normal range.’ But if the chronic disease rates in America are off the charts, which they are, then is it a good thing when your doctor tells you that your labs are normal?” Pierce says. “I teach people how to navigate that difference with their doctors, and say, ‘It’s cool that it’s normal, but I want to be optimal.’”

Step 4: Set the Tone

Your team is watching you. When you prioritize health, you shape a corporate culture of people who do the same. This can affect more than morale, Sharpe says.

According to a study by the Integrated Benefits Institute, poor health costs U.S. employers an average of $575 billion in lost productivity. Absenteeism in the C-suite is compounded by the high cost of replacing executives who burn out or leave.

Conversely, a landmark study from Harvard University found that for every dollar spent on wellness programs, medical costs dropped by about $3.27, with absenteeism costs falling by $2.73.

A commitment to CEO wellness can translate into a health-conscious and healthy organization.

“I told my executive team, ‘I don’t want to be in your personal business, but if you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re putting my company at risk,’” Sharpe says. “So, they’ve done it, they’ve picked something they enjoy doing, and they’ve stuck with it.”

Prioritizing wellness signals psychological safety and a positive work-life balance, which has a ripple effect on employee engagement, retention, morale and the bottom line.

Step 5: Measure the ROI of CEO Wellness

Considering your health and wellness as one of your company’s greatest assets has clear benefits. But what is the actual ROI of each half-hour spent on the stationary bike? Pretty high — both for the organization and the leader. One robust study even found that good health can predict how quickly someone rises up the corporate ladder.

The better we feel, the better we lead, says Pierce, who points to a few telling metrics:

Tangible outcomes

Self-care leads to increased clarity, energy, reduced burnout, and better decision-making — now and into the future. “Leaders benefit from aggressive prevention through data-centric insights about their health 10 to 20 years before they experience a diagnostic threshold for Alzheimer’s or for cardiovascular disease,” Pierce says. “Viewing it as an investment resonates with CEOs.”

Business KPIs impacted

A lot is riding on a CEO’s health, as both the physical and mental health of a leader are linked to cognitive capability, organizational growth, innovation, team cohesion, and crisis resilience. Then there is the well–understood–but–seldom–articulated matter of keeping a CEO alive. “There is no shortage of data that we can collect now that not only confirms a diagnosis but can reduce risk so issues don’t progress to disease,” Pierce says.

Ready to Get Started?

The data is clear: When you prioritize CEO wellness, your business thrives. Leadership that prioritizes health creates a more sustainable and flourishing culture — one that translates to success.

Pierce and Sharpe offer a few tips to get you to the starting line:

Change Your Mind and the Rest Will Follow

Don’t wait until a medical event motivates you to take control of your health. Proactive health means starting well before you show clinical signs of trouble. This shift from reactive health to proactive leadership strategy can be a tough one for some leaders, but viewing wellness as an investment in yourself and the future of your company can help reframe the concept of preventive health as a strategic advantage that you can’t ignore.

Start Today

While wearables and treadmill desks take some time to order and set up, there is literally nothing stopping you from switching out your vodka tonic for a glass of water this evening or inviting your team for a brainstorming walk this afternoon. The sooner you start, the sooner your new habits become routines – before you know it, you’ll have built a foundation upon which to stack more and more healthy habits.

“What excites me about this topic of CEO wellness is that I’m seeing how it affects entire organizations and the communities they serve,” Pierce says. “Starting with the leader allows us to shift the narrative about how much control we have over our own health and what it means to take control.”

Ready to claim that control and lead with clarity, energy and health? Start your wellness journey today.

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