Healthspan Versus Lifespan Inside Of Organization's

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Lately I’ve been a bit obsessed with the concept of longevity which looks at healthspan and lifespan. Lifespan is how long you live and healthspan is the quality of your life in the years you have. While you can’t necessarily control how long you live, you can certainly do everything in your power to make sure your quality of life is high.

I just finished reading Peter Attia’s book called “Longevity” and am also reading David Sinclair’s book called “Lifespan.” Both are fascinating reads and if you are into the science, mechanics, and chemistry of your body, food, and exercise then I recommend both of them.

Most of us focus on our lifespan which makes sense, after all, who wouldn’t want to live a long life? But what if the quality of your life severely diminishes as you get to your 70’s, 80’s, and hopefully your 90’s? Is a long life really the best goal you should be aiming for?

This is just as applicable inside of our organizations as it is our lives.

A few years ago, my grandfather Alex passed away in his 80’s in Melbourne, Australia. I wasn’t able to be there with him and had to watch him go on FaceTime, it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do and when it happened I turned to my wife and cried.

The last few years of his life he was on dialysis and had to spend hours each week sitting on a chair while his blood ran through a machine that cleaned and filtered it for him. He couldn’t go for walks, eat or drink what he wanted, and he would sleep for most of the day. I won’t go into more details but although he was alive he was miserable.

I’m now putting all of time and energy to focus on my healthspan which ideally will lead to an increased lifespan. In other words it’s not just about the years I have but the quality of life I have in those years.

The point of all of this is that I believe we need to think in terms of healthspan and lifespan inside of our organizations (impact and tenure) which I expand on below.

When most of us start working for an organization we are genuinely excited to be there and we want to make an impact. Through outdated office politics, bureaucracy, and hierarchy, our engagement and impact declines, in other words, our quality of life goes down but the organization as a whole is still focused on optimizing how long we stay there.

Clearly this doesn’t make any sense.

To borrow a concept from Peter Attia’s book…

Tenure

For decades tenure has been a metric we have focused on, we want to employees to stay at our organizations as long as possible and tenure has always been used as a barometer for loyalty and the value that an employee can contribute. Perhaps this made sense decades ago up through the 80’s and 90’s but technology changed all of that as we are all able to quickly scour the web for new opportunities and get recruited on platforms like LinkedIn.

As we saw with the quiet quitting trend, just because someone is at your company doesn’t mean they are adding value, so do you still want them there?

What if the employees are miserable, they aren’t contributing, or worse, they are creating an environment that hinders others? Would you rather have employees who stay at your company for ten years and are just “ok” or would you rather have employees who only stay at your company for 2 years but make a significant impact? (Of course the ideal scenario is you get employees who stay for 10 years AND make an significant impact.) Don’t focus on the length of time someone is with you, focus on the impact they have while they are with you.

This doesn’t meant that tenure shouldn’t a metric that you pay attention to, but it shouldn’t be the only one.

Leadership

If you’re a leader at an organization and you are responsible for others then it’s also crucial for you to think in terms of your healthspan and lifespan at the organization. Meaning are you just at the company for a long time or are you are able to consistently unlock the potential of others, drive change, and make a positive impact. Are you able to increase the healthspan and lifespan of those around you? Being a leader is one of the hardest yet rewarding positions you can take on yet so many leaders seem to be “coasting” when they get to that level.

These are two important aspects that we should be paying attention to not just in our lives but also inside of our organizations. Lifespan is far easier to quantify and focus on it’s simply “how long has Joe worked here?”

The impact of healthspan requires more effort and time to look at. Healthspan metrics can include things like impact to the bottom line, customer feedback, engagement surveys, reviews from peers, ideas that are put forward and innovations implemented, professional development goals (taking courses, certifications, etc), and ability to deliver on goals. All of these things (and many others) go beyond how long an employee is with you.

Are you measuring your and your employees’ healthspan and lifespan? If not, I highly recommend you start.

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