The Pressure at the Top: Why Australian Leaders Need Support Too

A manager once said something to me that I haven’t been able to shake:

“Most days, I’m so focused on keeping my team together that I don’t notice when I’m coming apart myself.”

He wasn’t trying to be dramatic. It came out like a passing comment. But it hit me hard, maybe because I’d already heard the same thing in different ways from other leaders here in Australia. People whose job it is to hold everything steady often feel like they’re falling apart quietly in the background.

The Part We Keep Missing

We talk a lot about employee wellbeing now, and that’s progress worth recognising. But there’s a blind spot: managers.

They’re stuck in the middle. Senior leaders send down goals, reports and “urgent” requests. Teams push back with questions, needs, frustrations. And the manager is left as the bridge, holding up both ends while trying to look calm and capable.

It works on a spreadsheet. In day-to-day life? It chips away. You end up with diaries so full you forget to breathe. You repeat the same answers even when you’re exhausted. The calm exterior starts to crack.

That’s why building resilience in the workplace can’t stop at frontline staff. Managers need it too—arguably more than anyone else, because they’re carrying pressure from both sides.

Stress Doesn’t Announce Itself

Stress rarely shows up with a neon sign. It sneaks in.

The manager who always cracks a joke at the start of a meeting suddenly sits in silence. The one who’s usually patient snaps over something trivial, like a missed deadline. Or decisions stall, not because they don’t care, but because their brain is juggling too many things at once.

Teams pick up on it straight away. Atmospheres shift. Meetings grow heavier. People stop contributing freely and start playing it safe. That kind of change spreads fast, and once it does, culture starts to erode.

When the Cracks Widen

A struggling manager doesn’t just impact themselves. It ripples outward.

Ideas shrink. Collaboration thins out. Trust fades. And after a while, good people begin scanning job ads—not because they dislike the role, but because the energy at work feels unstable.

It often starts so small you’d barely notice, like a drip under the sink. But over time the damage adds up. And sometimes the simplest interruption can shift the pattern: one honest check-in, a real conversation that goes beyond “How’s it going?”

Are you a psychologically safe manager? Take the self assessment to find out.

The Loop Leaders Know Too Well

Here’s the cycle. A manager feels stretched thin but pushes through anyway, because that’s what they think leadership demands. The pressure leaks out—shorter patience, withdrawal, less energy. Teams sense it, pull back, and results dip. Pressure circles back onto the manager.

And around it goes. Some leaders live in that loop silently for years.

But breaking it doesn’t always require a glossy wellbeing program or a big budget. Sometimes it’s much smaller, more human:

• Training that’s practical—how to set limits, manage conflict, or bounce back after a rough stretch.
• Workloads that line up with reality, not just best-case scenarios.
• Check-ins that actually feel genuine, not box-ticking.
• Senior leaders modelling balance—showing that setting boundaries is smart, not weak.

Rethinking Leadership in Australia

Good leadership has never been about being bulletproof. It’s about presence. About creating steadiness even when things around you aren’t steady.

More Australian organisations are starting to treat manager wellbeing as a priority. And not just because of psychosocial safety laws (though those matter). It’s because healthier leaders make clearer decisions, have stronger conversations, and create safer, more productive workplaces.

Because resilience isn’t about asking managers to carry more weight. It’s about making sure they don’t have to carry it all alone.