Energetic Hygiene is the New Leadership Competency
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Craig Cooke is a 5x Inc. 5000 CEO and Founder. He is an award-winning, bestselling Author of Business Kung Fu and a sought after success mentor.. Craig combines mindset, mastery and energetics with his Five Elements of Success framework to inspire and empower people to accellerate business growth and personal success.
Leadership used to be measured by strategy, communication, and execution. That’s still true. However, a new differentiator is hiding in plain sight. One that determines whether your strategy is sharp or sloppy, whether your communication is effective or ineffective, and whether your execution is consistent or chaotic. It’s energetic hygiene, he daily process of clearing stress, stabilizing your nervous system, and restoring internal coherence so you can lead from a place of calm, centeredness, and balance. Why is this important? Because businesses are paying massively for issues related to mental and emotional health. This is detailed further down in this article.
The real quantifiable costs
The numbers are astonishing. These are the business costs of stress, anxiety, burnout, and poor mental health.
Global productivity impact is enormous. WHO, The World Health Organization, estimates ~12 billion working days are lost each year to depression and anxiety, costing ~US$1 trillion in lost productivity annually.
Workplace conditions are a direct mental health risk factor. WHO lists drivers like excessive workloads, low job control, job insecurity, discrimination, harassment, and poor organizational culture as key psychosocial risks.
Deloitte (UK) quantifies employer costs at scale. Deloitte reports poor mental health costs UK employers £51B/year, with presenteeism the largest contributor, ~£24B/year, people working while unwell and underperforming.
Burnout signals are widespread. In Deloitte’s UK research, 63% of respondents reported at least one characteristic of burnout, e.g., exhaustion, mental distance, performance decline, up from 51% in their prior survey.
McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) shows “health is not the default.” In an MHI survey of 30,000+ employees across 30 countries, only 57% reported “good holistic health.” About one fifth reported burnout symptoms, and only 49% were “faring well.”
McKinsey frames the upside as economic value. MHI, with the World Economic Forum, has pointed to trillions of dollars of potential value from improving employee health and well being, often discussed as up to $11.7T in global economic value.
The hidden performance crisis, stress is now a business systems problem
Many leaders still treat stress like an individual issue. “They should take a vacation.” But the data says otherwise. Stress is increasingly structural.
WHO highlights workplace risk factors like excessive workloads, low job control, job insecurity, and toxic cultures as direct mental health risks.
McKinsey Health Institute research across 30,000+ employees found only 57% reported good holistic health, about 20% reported burnout symptoms, and only 49% were “faring well.”
Deloitte’s UK findings show 63% reporting at least one burnout characteristic, alongside huge productivity loss via presenteeism.
Stress isn’t just a feeling. It’s a performance variable. It’s time for leaders to be able to regulate the variables that determine performance. But leaders need to embrace this thinking themselves and lead by example. To walk the talk.
Why energetic hygiene is a necessity for modern leadership
Wellness is often treated as optional, personal, and “nice to have.” Leaders are expected to perform non stop, taking on massive amounts of stress through high pressure decisions, critical problem solving, and contending with the needs and demands of employees, clients, vendors, and more.
In today’s modern, chaotic professional world, energetic hygiene is essential. It’s how you maintain the internal conditions required for ongoing high performance. If you’re leading people, you’re also leading through various energetic fields.
The relational field in meetings
The mental decision field during uncertainty
The emotional field during conflict
The cultural field through your presence
When your system is dysregulated, you spread that dysregulation even without saying a word. And when you do speak, it exacerbates the problem, creating fear, anxiety, and a host of issues that tax your team’s performance. However, when you’re regulated, you create psychological safety, clearer thinking, and cleaner execution through your thoughts, speech, and actions.
The ROI case, leaders who regulate early win
Mental health investment pays, and earlier is better. Let’s take a look at the research data.
Deloitte (UK), ~£4.70 return per £1 invested in workforce mental health and wellbeing, on average, driven by productivity gains.
Earlier interventions tend to outperform late stage fixes. Deloitte notes higher ROI from early interventions, culture change and education, than from later, more intensive support when someone is already struggling.
Deloitte (UK), long running ROI story, ~£5 per £1, also appears in Deloitte’s broader “case for investment” and “refreshing the case” line of research.
These are the real returns on investments made to address the workplace wellness challenges of today. Now let’s take a look at a solution leaders can embrace for themselves and their teams.
The energetic hygiene solution for modern leaders
There are many methods and modalities people utilize to create more calm and resilience. Based on my experience, it’s best to engage the entire being for maximum effectiveness. By that, I mean engaging what are known as the “three bodies” in Chinese Energetic Medicine, the physical body, the energy body, and the spirit body. For me, the practice of qigong accomplishes all of this. The topic of qigong is quite vast, so let’s keep things focused on the overall article topic, energetic hygiene.
Energetic hygiene is about maintaining your energy body and keeping it “clean” of any disturbances. Just as we have a physical anatomy, we have an energetic anatomy. For example, there are three energetic containers referred to as “dantians,” upper, middle, and lower. The chakras are contained inside these containers. Other components include energy pools where each organ resides, which connect to meridians and collaterals. Think of it like lakes, to rivers, to streams. There is a lot more to it, but let’s leave it at that to keep things simple. We want to keep the components of our energetic anatomy clean and free of obstruction so the energy flows unimpeded.
In order to do this, we must get rid of any negatively charged energetic particle clusters that lead to qi congestion, stagnation, and or accumulation. This is accomplished through a variety of elimination practices within a qigong system. This is important, as a lot of qigong and other energetic practices can focus on cultivating energy. Building it up and harnessing it. But far too often, practices lack elimination protocols that are methods of purging qi blockages.
Energetic hygiene is ideally performed every day. Just like you take a shower or bath, and conduct other physical hygiene, you “clean” up your energetic anatomy. This way, you can then cultivate and harness clean energy. Over time, this leads to a balanced, calm demeanor. One feels centered and able to respond to situations rather than react. The mind is sharp and clear, allowing for clarity in decision making. Ultimately, you can perform at higher levels as a leader, instilling confidence and a sense of security in your team. For executives, it’s not an escape, it’s nervous system regulation that leads to higher levels of performance.
Research supports real benefits of qigong.
A 2024 systematic review of randomized trials found qigong showed significant reductions in perceived stress versus no treatment in pooled analysis, with mixed results vs some active controls.
The review also reports anxiety and depression improvements across multiple studies, varying by comparison group.
Additional research tracking qigong fitness interventions found reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression in a working population context.
So you don’t have to “believe” in it. You practice it and discover it for yourself. Keep in mind, though, the following guidelines.
You have a realistic daily and weekly rhythm
Your priorities show up on your calendar
You execute consistently, even when you’re not “in the mood”
You show up, you’re productive, and you’re effective
The new standard is regulated leadership through energetic hygiene
The next era of leadership is more coherent. It’s heart centered and does not lead by fear. Energetic hygiene clears the path to the heart center, allowing leaders to operate from this form of energy. It’s needed now more than ever because the marketplace is more volatile, work is more mentally demanding, and the cost of dysregulation is now visible in performance metrics, especially the hidden leak of presenteeism.
Energetic hygiene is how you stay centered in the storm. And qigong is one of the most efficient ways I know to train it. It had a profound impact on me as a CEO of a highly successful digital marketing agency. From that experience, I decided to pursue and obtain a doctorate in Chinese Energetic Medicine. In fact, my doctoral thesis examines the impact of qigong on modern business professionals. You can read the paper or listen to a summary podcast on the Resources page of my website. The paper is titled, “Energizing Success Through Qigong, The Ancient Practice Revolutionizing Stress Management and Emotional Balance for Modern Business Professionals.”
If you’d like to explore an applied approach to this work, my program Qigong for Business Professionals integrates energetic regulation, performance mindset, and a practical framework for sustaining high level execution without burnout.
For those wanting a strict focus on qigong and building a foundation to allow for a deeper dive, my Introduction to Qigong program is the best place to start. And if you want to just get your feet wet before diving in, then look at my “Taste of Qigong” pre recorded course.
If you’re ready to build a personalized energetic hygiene plan for your leadership role, one that fits your calendar and your reality, I invite you to reach out for one on one guidance. Start here. Contact Craig Cooke. And if you want the deeper strategic foundation behind how I teach performance through mind, body, and spirit, explore my book Business Kung Fu.
Read more from Craig Cooke
Craig Cooke, Mentor, Author, Speaker & Conscious Entrepreneur
Craig Cooke embodies success. He founded a digital marketing agency in 1996 with $1,300 and grew it towards a successful exit to a world-class strategic buyer. He is also a Doctor of Chinese Energetic Medicine (medical qigong) and an award-winning Author of the national bestselling book, "Business Kung Fu." Craig serves as a "Success Sifu," inspiring and empowering people, helping them reach what he calls their "divine potential." You can find Craig working with people online and in person through group and individual engagements.
