Why this JPMorgan exec says you should sleep more

JPMorgan Wealth Management CEO Kristin Lemkau

Kristin Lemkau has spent nearly 26 years at JPMorgan. She can trace nearly every bad decision she has ever made to being tired. In a tired state, she has rushed a hiring choice and ended up making the wrong call or shown up to meetings distracted and on edge.

As CEO of JPMorgan Wealth Management, Lemkau runs a unit with $1 trillion in client assets and nearly 10,000 employees. She disagrees with Wall Street’s “work until you drop” culture that encourages skimping on sleep to get the job done.

“I don’t think it’s a responsible thing to do as a leader to come to work overtired, jetlagged, in a crappy mood,” she told B-17 in an interview at the bank’s Manhattan headquarters. “Most meetings I am in are for me, so if I am off balance, I throw the whole group off. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to use everyone’s time well.”

Lemkau got used to sleeping less in order to balance her career at JPMorgan and raising two children. She decided to change her ways after her friend and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington told her she was shortchanging herself. In 2017, JPMorgan employees were encouraged to change a habit for 28 days as part of a bank partnership with Huffington’s wellness startup Thrive Global. Lemkau chose sleep and unplugging from technology, aiming for eight hours of sleep a night and not using her phone before bed.

Years later, Lemkau still sleeps seven to eight hours a night, typically getting in bed by 9:30 p.m. and waking up by 5:30 a.m. She has lapsed in her commitment to staying off her phone before bed and plays word games to unwind at night. However, she has picked up some healthier habits, like avoiding caffeine after lunch and cutting out alcohol.

Sacrificing sleep and working grueling hours have been glorified by some CEOs and executives. American Express CEO Stephen Squeri, for instance, works 17 hours a day and sleeps about 6 hours. Lemkau is part of a growing contingent on Wall Street calling for colleagues to sleep more. Goldman Sachs partner Brian Robinson prioritizes “investing in wellness” and puts his phone in his kitchen at night to get more rest.

“In my early career, I would survive on five to six hours a night,” the prime brokerage leader told B-17 in April. “But now I am thriving and have strong sustained energy because I am getting seven-plus hours a night during the workweek and eight-plus on weekends.”

Lemkau tries to lead by example, talking to employees about self-care and sleep. She goes to all of her kids’ sports games and big events, she said. While she does check her email in the evenings, she makes time for family dinner every night after leaving the office around six. After dinner, she works out, typically jogging with her dog.

“I don’t think you’re going to be terribly good at your job if you’re really only narrowly obsessed with your job,” she said. “I am a very big believer that you must be a rich, complete human being with a rich complete life to be good at your job.