Building healthy leadership structures

Leader wellbeing might begin with the individual, but it doesn't end there.

A leader walks into a room carrying something with them. When they are healthy, secure and emotionally available, their team is more likely to experience stability, trust and clarity. When they are exhausted, reactive or insecure, the team can feel that too.

This is why the health of a leader can ripple through an organisation.

An unhealthy leader can create an insecure team. And when people feel insecure, they naturally begin to protect themselves. They protect their roles, their resources, their influence and their territory. Over time, that can create power struggles and an unhealthy culture.

The effects can eventually reach vision and strategy. When a leader is depleted, it becomes harder to maintain clarity around the mission. Decisions can become reactive. The organisation can lose sight of where it is going because the person responsible for helping provide direction no longer has the capacity to think clearly.

The role of boards and governance

This raises an important question:

What responsibility does an organisation have for the health of its leaders?

Boards are often focused on finances, performance, strategy, risk and accountability. All of these things matter. But if the leader responsible for carrying the organisation is becoming unhealthy, the board cannot afford to ignore that either.

Care and accountability don't need to compete with one another. In fact, they can strengthen each other.

A board can ask difficult questions about performance while also asking a leader:

“How are you really doing?”

That simple question tells the leader that their wellbeing matters 

Equip your board to look at:

• Sustainable role expectations and workload.
• Regular leave and genuine cover during leave.
• A deputy or distributed leadership.
• Confidential counselling, mentoring or supervision.
• A safe process for leaders to disclose struggles.
• What happens operationally when a leader needs time away.
• Return-to-work support after a crisis.
• Whether the organisation rewards overwork and constant availability.