Lisa Krage is the founder of Swiss Performance Systems and a specialist in performance coaching and corporate health. She develops measurable performance systems for high performers in demanding positions and ambitious companies. The basis for this is scientific stress and performance diagnostics, methods from elite sports and over a decade of experience in international business environments. Her credo: Health and success are not contradictions – they go hand in hand.
Before setting up her own business at the end of last year, she worked in various roles in the sporting goods industry, first for the German company Adidas and most recently as Brand Communications & Athletes Lead for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at the Swiss sports brand On. She experienced first-hand what modern leadership demands of the body and what separates the best performers from the burnt-out ones. She also knows high performance from her own experience as an active competitive runner on the track.
Today she combines these two worlds in Swiss Performance Systems. FashionUnited spoke to her about how stress measurably affects creativity and performance and what tips she would give to leaders in the fashion industry.
You are active in the areas of stress diagnostics and performance consulting. What first tips would you give companies to promote the well-being of their employees?
My first tip: measure instead of guessing. We make data-based decisions every day in the company – sales, growth, margins. So why not also when it comes to health?
We all know health days, sleep lectures and resilience workshops. The problem? Most of these initiatives are measured by the number of participants, but not by their impact. That’s why most corporate health managers I speak with struggle to expand their resources. No data, no proven impact, no budget.
Have you had such experiences in your career so far?
Yes, I experienced this myself. We once invested 10,000 Swiss francs (around 10,845 euros) in a sleep expert. Two hours of presentation, well attended, good feedback. My honest assessment in retrospect: If these two hours do not lead to concrete behavioral changes, such as a commitment to eight hours of sleep a day or regular bedtimes, then it would have made more sense for the employees to simply sleep these two hours.
This is not a criticism of sleep experts. This is a criticism of the system. As long as corporate health is not measured with KPIs like every other business area, it remains a nice add-on instead of strategic infrastructure. First, we need data rather than generic wellness offerings to understand where performance is really being lost. Because we can only address what is measured and allocate resources sensibly.
Which structural problems that burden employees are deeply rooted in fashion companies?
The fashion industry thrives on cycles – fixed deadlines, seasonal collections, constant pressure for the next season. Developing a new product in the sports fashion industry typically takes two years, from concept to launch. Pure color updates are faster, new innovations take three or more years. The fashion calendar is tight.
What is often forgotten is that high performance requires relaxation. In competitive sports, no one would expect athletes to be in competitive shape for twelve months in a row. After the competition phase there is always a regeneration phase. Things are different in the sports fashion industry. Fashion shows, marathons and campaign launches line up closely together here. This is a structural problem.
Are there certain types of consequences caused by prolonged stress that you particularly notice?
I also know from my own experience what I see in many of my clients’ profiles. I worked in a high performance environment for years and ignored the classic warning signs. I fueled myself through the day with coffee, continued working while I was sick, and when I finally went on vacation, I promptly fell ill. This is no coincidence. The body waits until it can “allow” itself to rest and then makes up for what it has suppressed.
This is exactly the same pattern I see with most high performers, the lost ability to “relax”. The classic statement: “I come home and just can’t switch off.” This isn’t a character issue – this is biology.
What’s behind it?
We are talking about dysregulation of the stress response system. The body is permanently stuck in a sympathetic or activated state, in “always on” mode. The research is clear here: studies show that work-related chronic stress is consistently linked to increased heart rate, increased cortisol levels and reduced heart rate variability. The body literally loses the ability to flexibly switch between tension – “fight-or-flight state” – and recovery – “rest-and-digest state”.
What would you recommend to leaders in the fashion industry to reduce the long-term effects of stress?
First record the current state. How are my body resources? What are my stress patterns? Can I still regulate myself – and if so, what will really help me? Various measurement methods are available for this – from long-term ECGs to biomarker tests and surveys.
According to studies, a healthy lifestyle can greatly reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases and significantly increase life expectancy. Some longevity clinics even speak of a ratio of 80 to 20 – 80 percent of our health should be influenced by lifestyle, environment and habits, while genes should influence a maximum of 20 percent. So your own sphere of influence is huge.
What is the next step once the current state has been determined?
Then it’s the basics that make the difference. Not cryo chambers or expensive infusions, but sleep, exercise, nutrition and social contacts. I speak here not only from scientific conviction, but from my own experience. I used to start my workouts on an empty stomach, skip meals when things got stressful, and then wonder why my energy levels were low in the afternoon. Today I know it wasn’t a problem of willpower. Unstable blood sugar creates stress in the body, which can feel like anxiety or even panic.
The crucial question is: How do I make these basics my standards so that they can survive a stressful work week or a business trip? For example, I always travel with running shoes and choose hotels with a gym. That sounds simple, but it’s an attitude. And I’ll say it openly, I wouldn’t choose an employer who doesn’t actively create a framework in which my health and performance are promoted and the healthy choice is easier than the unhealthy one.
Designers balance between creativity and pressure to complete the collections. At what point does physiological stress block the creative process?
Body and head cannot be separated. Stress is multidimensional and always biological. Every negative thought, every deadline, every conflict triggers a biochemical reaction in the body. Catecholamines are released, the heart rate increases, cortisol increases, and the brain switches to survival mode. And in survival mode, creativity is the last thing resources are used for. Chronic stress destroys the very mental state that creative work requires. In survival mode you don’t create, you react.
I really thrive under short-term pressure, like in a competition. I got that from competitive sports. I am then very efficient and solution-oriented. However, when I’m under long-term stress, I notice that my creative abilities suffer. Then the capacity of my nervous system is very limited.
Are there parallels between competitive athletes and managers?
Absolutely and that is the core of my approach. I see managers like competitive athletes – the business athlete: both under constant pressure, both dependent on top performance.
Let’s take a concrete example from sports science. Even a fluid loss of one to two percent of body weight measurably affects performance – concentration, strength, reaction time. Athletes who run ten seconds below their best time immediately triggered an alarm. In the corporate world, we ignore warning signs every day.
The difference between athletes and managers? Athletes are supported with diagnostic tools, recovery protocols, mental coaching and nutritional expertise. I had the honor of helping to set up exactly such a system at the On sports brand: the “360° Athlete Support” program. My goal is to transfer this principle to the business world.
What did you learn overall from your time at On?
My most formative learning from more than nine years in the sports industry is: Culture beats motivation. Motivation is fleeting, it works when everything is easy. Culture is what helps when things get difficult.
I have personally experienced an environment where healthy choices are the norm, such as running during lunch breaks, fresh, healthy canteens, and walking meetings. It has led me to build habits that I probably would never have stuck to consistently on my own. The environment does the work. This changed my entire view of sustainable performance and is now the basis of my work with managers and companies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into creative and business processes. Do you see these tools as a solution to stress or as additional pressure as the expectation of performance and speed increases?
That depends on how you use them. Personally, I was never afraid that AI would replace my job. I have a very strong growth mindset and am constantly learning new things and continuing my education. Anyone who is afraid of AI today should ask themselves: What are my strengths that AI cannot take over in the near future? What are – human – skills that will become even more important in the future?
AI accelerates output – data analysis, structures, text creation – but human capacity such as stress regulation for strategic decisions under pressure, emotional intelligence for building business relationships and a powerful, healthy body for the necessary self-confidence cannot be automated in a timely manner. This will be the decisive competitive advantage in the next few years.
To what extent can stress diagnostics help to promote productivity or reduce error rates?
I see stress diagnostics as a tool to expand human (performance) capacity and as a burnout early warning system. I know from personal experience how long you can ignore these warning signs. Sick on vacation, the feeling of never being able to really switch off, waking up exhausted in the morning even though you’ve slept: these are not sensitivities, these are measurable biological states.
Studies show that burnout patients show altered cortisol patterns months beforehand. If you read these signals early, you can react before damage occurs. It’s not for nothing that the World Health Organization has called stress the “health epidemic of the 21st century.” And the numbers are clear: a single case of burnout costs a company four to six months of lost wages; and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Added to this are productivity losses, fluctuation and reputational damage. This can add up to several million per year depending on the size of the company. That’s why I don’t see the area of corporate health and stress diagnostics as a cost center, but rather as risk management.
This interview was conducted in writing.