From Perks to Presence: Why Real Workplace Well-Being Starts With Leadership

‍ The Hidden Cost of Overlooked Leader Well-Being

A stressed-out leader is an expensive business liability and most organizations don’t even realize they’re paying the price. According to the American Psychological Association’s 2023 Work in America Survey, 57% of workers said they experienced negative impacts due to work-related stress associated with burnout, including emotional exhaustion, irritability, and anger. And here’s what’s often missed: when leaders don’t manage their own stress, it trickles down. It multiplies the burnout and stress across teams.

Perks and wellness programs may look good on paper, but they rarely address the real issue: the invisible weight leaders carry - the fears, stories, and unprocessed stress that shape every decision they make.

So, what can HR leaders do to equip leaders to manage their stress levels? In addition to your EAP, you can help leaders with an age-old solution called self-awareness. Introduce programs, coaching, and development opportunities to support leaders to Know. Own. Lead.  

• Know themselves deeply
• Own their progress and power
• Lead with mastery

What follows is a look at why this matters more than ever and how HR leaders can help turn this into a business advantage.

‍

HR Leaders: You’re Holding It All

You’re expected to champion culture, retain talent, somehow find new ways to support DEI in a new regulatory climate,  and manage return-to-office shifts. You’re expected to do this all while navigating rising burnout, the war for talent, and disengagement. And you’re doing it with fewer resources and increasing pressure to prove impact.

But here’s the hard truth: if your leaders aren’t well, your culture can’t be either. Leader well-being isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s an HR leadership imperative.

‍

The Myth of Compartmentalization

Many leaders try to box up their personal struggles and “just focus on work.” But the mind doesn’t compartmentalize stress, it carries it. The baggage from home - old disappointments, perfectionism, workplace wounds, internalized pressure - shows up in every meeting and email.

These unseen influences quietly shape how leaders respond to conflict, navigate priorities, and engage their teams. If it’s unconscious, it’s unaddressed. And if it’s unaddressed, it’s embedded in leader behavior and your workplace culture. 

The old adage to check your baggage at the door is no longer an option. HR leaders have to help leaders check their baggage with greater self-awareness. 

‍

Real Well-Being Starts at the Top

Through my work as an Executive Coach and Consultant leading strategy, I’ve seen time and again that sustainable well-being starts with leader self-mastery — not just physical health or work-life balance, but the deeper layers. 

In my work, I help leaders move from:

• Chaos to Clarity
• Burnout to Breakthrough
• Exhaustion to Endurance
• Pressure to Power
• Inner Critic to Inner Champion

Employees take their queues from leaders. Employees watch a leader's energy and behavior more than they listen to their words. If leaders are disconnected, employees feel it. If leaders are burned out but pretending, they mirror that. Leadership is contagious, for better or worse.

The Solution: Pausing with Purpose

You don’t solve leader well-being with a one and done wellness webinar. You tackle it through time by helping leaders get curious about their inner world.

I call it Pausing with Purpose, a deceptively simple but powerful practice:

• Step back
• Find a space to get quiet
• Do a 5-minute self check-in (see below)

This practice is radical in a culture obsessed with productivity, but essential for leaders committed to a more holistic, human-centered way of leading.

I’ve noticed, in my work, many leaders don’t have time, struggle to find time, and often neglect to make time to check-in with themselves.

‍

Try This: 5-Minute Self-Check-In (Starting With You)

Before your next big meeting: 

1. Close your eyes. Inhale deeply, three times
2. Ask: What’s weighing on me today? What emotion is strongest?
3. Don’t fix it, just notice. Breathe into it
4. Ask: Given what I’m carrying, what would leading well look like today?

Repeat daily. It seems small, but it’s everything.

‍

For HR Leaders: Where to Start

Here are 3 ways to embed leader well-being into your culture:

• Make reflection a leadership norm.
  Add 2-minute check-ins to meetings. Introduce recovery time after high-stakes work. Normalize space to reflect, not just speed.
• Audit your leadership development.
  Does it teach leaders to explore their internal narratives? Regulate their nervous systems? Align with purpose? If not, it’s incomplete.
• Start from the top.
  Senior leaders set the tone. Partner with them to make the invisible visible. When they go inward, culture shifts outward. Role model these practices as a key HR leader in your business. 

‍

Strategic Well-Being Starts With You

As an HR leader, if you're committed to building a healthier culture and a more grounded leadership bench, it starts by going inward. 

When you support leaders in examining their inner landscape, they unlock the clarity, capacity, and courage to lead from their deepest truth. 

Not sure where to start or feeling stuck? Let’s connect over virtual coffee. Happy to support ideas, partnership or both. 

‍

¹ Source: American Psychological Association’s 2023 Work in America Survey