Silencing your notifications after work makes you a better leader, study says

A new study by University of Florida researchers found that ignoring work emails when at home and disconnecting from work can help you to be a better leader.

A new study led by researchers from the University of Florida reveals that silencing your notification at the end of the work day and ignoring your work email after your work hours could make you a better leader at your job.

According to the study published on April 6, managers who disconnected from their work at home were effective leaders when it comes to helping their employees to stay on target while the result was the opposite for bosses who spent their off hours thinking about their job. 

The researchers surveyed managers and their employees at U.S. businesses in 2019 and 2022. They assessed leaders’ ability to disconnect from work when at home the night before and their level of energy and how strongly they identified as a leader in the morning at work. Employees rated their bosses on their ability to lead their teams.

“What we found is that on nights when leaders were able to completely turn off and not think about work, they were more energized the next day, and they felt better connected to their leadership role at work. On those same days, their followers reported that these leaders were more effective in motivating them and in guiding their work,” the lead author of the study Klodiana Lanaj said in a news release published last week.

“But on nights when leaders reported that they were thinking about the negative aspects of work, they couldn’t really recuperate their energy by the morning,” Lanaj added. “They saw themselves as less leader-like and they weren’t as effective, as rated by their followers.” 

Lanaj suggests that if leaders want to have an effective role in the office they should “leave work at work” and improve work-life balance by disconnecting from work.

Businesses also should help managers to recharge at home by reducing after-hours emailing and calls, Lanaj says, adding that managers should set their phone to disable notifications after a certain hour or leave work devices in a dedicated office.