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Four ways CEOs can preserve their emotional energy

By Nicky Murray, CPsychol and Cristina Barquero Guillen
August 2025

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We’re lucky enough to have worked alongside plenty of CEOs during our career. Their intellect and dedication, vision and wisdom, have always been beyond impressive. But they’re also only human.

They get up every day, just like us. They like a good cup of coffee to kickstart their morning, just like us. They rely on technology to power their day, just like us. They spend too much time on their screens, just like us. They profess to occasional doubts and uncertainties, just like us. But unlike us, theirs is a role that often comes laced with an expectation of superhuman strength and fortitude.

Now, we’re not saying that life at Spencer Stuart doesn’t come with its own pressures and challenges. But CEOs operate on their own distinct playing field — one shaped by their ultimate responsibility for company performance.

This means CEOs have no off switch. The role — festooned with bespoke demands and stresses — plays out under a fierce internal and external spotlight. It is unrelenting, demanding and exhausting, both mentally and physically. And if anything, as our colleagues suggested last year, its scope and requirements are growing and diversifying.

Age diversity: UK spotlight

UK boards are opting for more experienced directors to help them oversee, understand and address the evolving external environment they face, resulting in less age diversity in the boardroom.

  • 6% of newly appointed non-executive directors are under the age of 50 (12% in 2023)
  • The average age of first-time directors has increased by two years to 56.7 years
  • The average age of non-executive directors is now 60.6 years

Source: 2024 UK Spencer Stuart Board Index

But regardless of their age, CEOs can still only be in one meeting at a time, hold one conversation at a time, be in one building at a time. Technology can help of course — particularly when colleagues and operations are spread across different geographies and time zones — but even the hardest working CEO does not possess infinite stamina.

Perhaps this explains why the likelihood that a CEO will fall short is higher than ever. In their recent book The Life Cycle of a CEO, our colleagues, Claudius Hildebrand and Robert Stark outline how 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs last fewer than three years and between 2000 and 2019, average CEO tenure in the US fell from 10 years to less than seven.

So against this challenging backdrop, how can CEOs go about maintaining the energy and vitality so important to good decision-making and effective leadership? How can they manage the demands of the role while also safeguarding their own wellbeing?

We recently sat down with CEOs from businesses of different sizes and development stages, ranging from start-ups to global enterprises, across diverse industries and geographies, to discuss these issues. Here are their recommendations for how to preserve one’s energy while serving in the CEO hot seat.

A recurring theme from the CEOs we spoke to was how they had benefited from working with a professional coach. This makes sense on a number of different levels.

After all, individual athletes work alongside coaches every day. And professional sports teams employ a large number of individual coaches specialising in different positions and requirements. Given the sheer scale of a CEO’s responsibilities, not to mention the often vast sums of money involved in their company’s operations, it is only natural for the CEO (and every member of the C-suite) to want to be at the top of their game.

While CEOs often feel a sense of isolation with few people to confide in, Simon Fenton, CEO of Meyler Campbell, says that coaching can help. “Coaching is a powerful way to enable chief executives to explore options on how best to achieve their full potential,” he says. “Done properly, it provides a safe sanctuary where CEOs can challenge themselves to find the best solutions to deliver optimum results. Many CEOs find it complements the role of a mentor and adds substantial value.”

Mark Duckworth, CEO of Schroders Personal Wealth, believes that a coach can provide something that even a close family member is unable to. “Your wife or partner can say ‘come here, let me give you a hug’ which is great but not massively helpful in resolving a problem at work,” he points out. “You need somebody that says ‘yeah, I know you’re thinking that, but could it not be that it’s this?’ When I appointed a coach, it was transformational.”

Having a coach made a similar impact on Alex Vaughan, CEO of Costain. “It's great to have someone there to help and support because you can't just walk into the office and openly share and voice your frustrations, because they expect and need you to be the role model with a calm level of in control confidence. But being with a coach is a space where you can really be vulnerable and challenge yourself.”

Janet Taylor-Hall, CEO of Cognia, also echoes these points. “If I was to live my life again, one thing I would put in place earlier is a coach,” she says. “You need a completely independent relationship with someone you can work with. Leadership is something you constantly need to work at. It’s a muscle that you need to keep working at and a coach can really help.”

The links between physical fitness and improved professional performance are well-documented and many of these are particularly prescient for CEOs. From stress relief to greater mental clarity, improved focus to increased productivity, the benefits are legion. And for Alistair Elliott, former senior partner and chair of Knight Frank’s Group Executive Board, it was also a useful way to get out and about during frequent international travel.

“Wherever I went in the world I took my running kit with me,” he says. “If I felt not as tired as I should be, I either went for a run or a long walk which was also a good way to see new cities. So, if I had any downtime, that’s what I would do, and it was always a tremendous release valve.”

Let’s face it, all of us are tired when we return from a draining day at work. Throw in an often troublesome commute and arriving back home is usually something of a relief. CEOs are no different and yet their role means they often have to work long into the evening, such as attending networking functions, catching up on emails or connecting with colleagues in different time zones.

Against this demanding backdrop, Jonathan Cole, former CEO of Corio, uses the analogy of a rechargeable battery to describe how leaders should maintain their strength and focus. “You have a line of charge and when you’re above it, you feel charged enough to cope with everything the job throws at you,” he explains. “But when you fall below that line you start to flag and even small things can start to drag you further down.”

For Cole, it comes down to understanding how to keep yourself above the line and identifying which activities recharge you, and those which drain you — and being strict about striking the right balance.

“If I see things that will take me below the line, I will need to factor in a few things that are going to build me back up again like spending time with family, playing golf and going for a beer,” he adds. “This also means you’re setting a very good example to everyone else that it is ok to have downtime, to look after yourself, and to prioritise your home life.”

Pramukh Jeyathilak, CEO of TalentLign, deploys a similar approach, firmly believing that emotional energy is rooted in activities outside of the workplace. “I try and surround myself with all the things that give me energy,” he says. “So if I am stressed and need to be energised, I will go for a bike ride or play a round of golf. I also play my clarinet! I also fall back on my faith, as this is an important thing that gives me energy and helps keep me balanced.”

The CEO role is often described as one of the “loneliest” in existence and in many cases that’s true. Being the ultimate decision-maker means that the burden of leadership and responsibility can rest heavy and be a major drain on an individual’s emotional energy and resilience — particularly over the long-term. And yet when a leadership team works together, united on goals, purpose, and collaboration, organisations can reap huge dividends: our CEO of the Future research found that that the most effective CEOs intentionally break down rigid hierarchies so they can tap into the collective intelligence of the team and broader organisation.

Bringing senior colleagues together was a particularly pertinent challenge for Magdalena Smith, CEO of Behaviour Lab. “One of the key things is the value of bringing in senior colleagues who know and understand that we will all have days that are good and bad,” she says. “It’s about being able to say, ‘listen, I’m having an awful couple of hours, just let me regroup. Let me take a break.’ It is ok to sometimes press pause.”

Chris Meyer, former CEO of Lesaka Technologies, also stresses the value of having a close-knit group of colleagues to lean on. “I constantly remind myself that it’s ok not to have all the answers,” he says. “And you have to be honest with yourself. You have to know when you start to snap at colleagues or become impatient. So, it’s important to have people around you that can help you identify those things as well. Give them permission to tell you when you're not being the best version of yourself.”


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