I once walked into a workplace where the atmosphere said more than the people did. No raised voices, no drama — just a quiet heaviness that hung in the air. You could see it in the way people glanced at the clock a little too often, or the way their shoulders slumped under invisible weight.
The company itself looked good on paper. They offered wellbeing leave, flexible schedules, even access to an employee assistance program. Their employee health and wellbeing strategy ticked all the right boxes. But policies don’t tell the whole story.
What set the tone each day wasn’t the benefits written in the handbook. It was leadership. The way managers showed up, the tone they set, the way they responded to stress — that was what shaped how people felt when they walked through the door.
The New Reality for Leaders
In Australia, leadership has shifted. Teams are more diverse, younger employees are more outspoken, and staff are less likely to stay quiet if something feels off. At the same time, many workplaces are stretched thinner, with fewer resources to spread across growing demands. Leaders are stuck in the middle — balancing staff expectations, organisational priorities, and their own pressures.
The old-school “command and control” approach doesn’t cut it anymore. People don’t want to be micromanaged. They want direction, but they also want freedom to do their work. They want leaders who will encourage them when things get tough, and who will back them up when the pressure rises.
It sounds simple, but in practice, it’s not. Because leadership today isn’t about just getting the job done — it’s about balancing people and performance at the same time.
Why Balance Matters
Balance in leadership is the difference between a workplace that drains people and one that energises them.
It’s being clear about goals without being rigid.
It’s driving results without exhausting the team.
It’s caring about the people as much as the bottom line.
That balance doesn’t come naturally to everyone. It’s a skill, and like any skill, it has to be built. It takes self-awareness, practice, and often proper training to learn how to manage people in a way that brings out their best.
What Good Leaders Actually Do
When you look at leaders who make a real difference in their teams, they’re not always the loudest or the toughest. Often, it’s the quiet consistency that counts. The things that don’t look spectacular on the surface, but change how people feel every day.
Good leaders know how to:
Inspire instead of command. Staff want to be part of a bigger vision, not just follow instructions.
Lift morale when spirits are low. Sometimes a simple acknowledgement or encouragement can reset a whole team’s energy.
Help manage workloads. Leadership isn’t just handing out tasks. It’s guiding staff on what’s urgent, what can wait, and what really matters.
Communicate with respect. Recognition, gratitude, and trust go further than most people realise.
These aren’t add-ons to leadership — they are the core. And they sit at the centre of any strong employee health and wellbeing strategy.
Where Leadership and Wellbeing Meet
A workplace can offer free fruit in the kitchen, and access to apps that promote mindfulness. Those things aren’t bad. But if a staff member is drowning in deadlines, and their manager doesn’t even notice, none of those surface-level perks are going to fix it.
What changes the culture is when leaders bring empathy and accountability together. They listen, but they also provide direction. They create space for people to raise concerns, but they don’t let things drift. That balance tells employees that their wellbeing matters, but so does the quality of their work. And that’s when wellbeing becomes part of the daily experience — not just a policy on a page.
Are you a psychologically safe manager? Take the self assessment to find out.
The Australian Context
In Australia, workplaces are facing unique challenges. Remote and hybrid work have become normal in many industries, which means leaders are managing people they don’t see every day. That takes more trust, clearer communication, and an ability to keep teams connected even when they’re not in the same room.
There’s also the growing recognition of mental health in Australian workplaces. Staff expect it to be taken seriously. Leaders are no longer just project managers — they’re culture carriers. How they act each day sets the tone for whether employees feel supported or left behind.
The Takeaway
Workplace wellbeing doesn’t begin with free perks or surface-level programs. It begins with leadership: balanced, human leadership.
If your organisation is serious about building a strong employee health and wellbeing strategy, don’t stop at policy. Equip your leaders. Train them. Back them. Because the truth is simple: no wellbeing initiative can survive poor leadership. But the right leadership can make any wellbeing strategy thrive.
So the question for Australian workplaces is this: are you giving your leaders the support they need to strike that balance? Because if you are, the benefits flow right across the organisation — from stronger morale to better results.
Peter Diaz is the CEO of Workplace Mental Health Institute. He’s an author and accredited mental health social worker with senior management experience. Having recovered from his own experience of bipolar depression, Peter is passionate about assisting organisations to address workplace mental health issues in a compassionate yet results-focussed way. He’s also a Dad, Husband, Trekkie and Thinker.
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