ServiceNow President and Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuono said executives who log 14-hour days on four hours of sleep are setting a "terrible example" for their employees, arguing that rest and recovery deserve the same weight in business that they receive in professional sports.

The comments come from within the executive ranks she was describing: as finance chief of ServiceNow, a major enterprise software company, Mastantuono helps set the tone for the working culture she argues leaders should change.

Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, California, on Tuesday, Mastantuono—who has championed fitness for both personal health and leadership—said the importance of recovery has broken into wider culture but has not fully permeated the vocabulary or habits of business leaders, many of whom still glorify overwork.

"There's always been this—if you have to work 14-hour days and you get four hours sleep, and that shows that you're working the hardest and you deserve the most," she told Alicia Hatch, U.S. Sports chief commercial officer and women's sports leader at Deloitte. "And in fact, that is such a terrible example for the people around us."

Her remarks align with a growing body of research on boundaries and work-life balance. A University of Florida meta-analysis of nearly 200 studies, for example, found that recovery from work is associated with better sleep, improved mental health, and increased long-term satisfaction with one's life. The World Health Organization similarly classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon in its International Classification of Diseases, defining it as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. A joint analysis by the WHO and the International Labour Organization went further, estimating that working 55 or more hours per week was associated with roughly 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016.

But Mastantuono noted that accepting the research intellectually is different from internalizing it. "Recovery is part of the performance; it's not secondary," she said. "Muscle doesn't grow when we pump out at the gym. It grows when we're sleeping at night and letting the muscles recover."

She said she has experienced those benefits firsthand, crediting a healthier work-life balance with sharpening her ability to listen rather than react and to remain calm under duress and pressure—qualities she said have enabled her teams to execute more effectively. "When we do focus on taking care of ourselves, then we are much better bosses, much better colleagues, much better parents," she said.

Janet Evans, a four-time Olympic medalist in swimming and chief athlete officer of LA28, the organizing committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, said she was well-versed in the importance of recovery in the context of competition but has similarly needed reminders to take a breather. Evans told Hatch about LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover, a former three-star U.S. Army lieutenant general who frequently incorporates military parlance into in-office conversations.

"No one's guns are drawn. No one is shooting each other," Evans recalled Hoover telling her. "So Janet, you're gonna figure this out tomorrow."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.