Introduction
Leadership influences every aspect of organisational performance, including health and wellbeing. In today’s workplace, stress, burnout, and disengagement are damaging people and performance in equal measure. The way leaders work has a direct impact on whether organisations become energising or exhausting places to be.
Too often, leadership development focus only on results while overlooking the health and long-term value of people. If leaders push harder, chase perfection, and avoid conflict, they risk creating toxic environments that drain energy and erode trust.
Here’s the good news:
By focusing on five key leadership practices, HR Teams can guide their organisations to strengthen leadership effectiveness, achieve results, and promote health and wellbeing, all at the same time.

1. Sustainable Productivity
Sustainable Productivity means achieving results without exhausting people or compromising long-term health. Too often, leaders confuse effectiveness with constant activity, but relentless busyness eventually undermines both performance and wellbeing.
Leaders who focus on Sustainable Productivity set clear priorities, pace allocate resources effectively, and maintain high levels of morale. By showing that high achievement and health can coexist, they protect themselves and create cultures where employees can deliver results without burning out.
Key Questions to ask:
•    Are we building a culture that renews our people or depletes their energy?
•    What’s the long-term cost of our current pace?

2. Fostering Team Play
Strong teams are one of the best buffers against stress. Leaders who Foster Team Play build trust, psychological safety, and shared responsibility. This is about more than just harmony. It involves surfacing conflict constructively and ensuring that success is collective, rather than being dependent on one or two so-called stars.
When people feel supported and included, resilience grows and performance improves. Leaders who Foster Team Play create connected cultures where people protect one another against burnout and isolation.
Key Questions to ask:
•    How often do we invite our team members to share new thoughts and ideas?
•    How often do we encourage our team members to make their own decisions?

 

3. Courageous Authenticity
Stress often grows in the shadows of unspoken issues. Leaders who practise Courageous Authenticity reduce this tension by naming the “undiscussables” and tackling difficult topics with honesty and respect. They admit mistakes, align actions with values, and speak up even when it feels risky.
When leaders are Courageously Authentic, they build climates of trust where employees don’t waste energy second-guessing or holding back. People feel safer to share ideas, admit challenges, and contribute fully.
Key Questions to ask:
•    What are we not yet talking about that is causing uncertainty and stress?
•    What’s holding me back from discussing things my team would benefit from hearing?

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4. Systems Thinking
Leadership decisions ripple across people, processes, and culture. Without Systems Thinking, leaders may chase short-term results and inadvertently overloading people at the expense of long-term success.
Systems Thinkers take a wider view. They look beyond individual goals to see how projects and priorities intersect. They balance immediate results with the enduring health of people and the organisation, creating workloads that stretch, but don’t overwhelm. Their leadership builds cultures where productivity is sustained rather than squeezed.
Key Questions to ask:
•    What would our system say to us if our system had its own voice?
•    What unintended consequences are we causing with our day-to-day decisions? 

5. Sustained Achievement
Sustained Achievement is purpose-driven ambition that inspires without exhausting. Leaders too often slip into “driven” behaviour, working excessively and creating a constant sense of urgency. This drains both them and their teams, leading to burnout and disengagement.
By contrast, Sustained Achievement channels ambition into clear priorities, decisive action, and meaningful progress. Leaders celebrate wins, involve their teams, and inspire through clarity rather than pressure. The energy generated is collective, not competitive.
Key Questions to ask:
•    How effectively have we translated our strategy into clear action plans?
•    Are we driven more by:
      o    learning, growth, and impact; or
      o    control, perfection, and competition?

The Bottom Line for HR Leaders

These five leadership practices are the leadership behaviours that most directly shape workplace health while still driving results. Leaders who manage themselves well, build supportive teams, speak with honesty, think systemically, and pursue achievement with purpose are the ones who create organisations where people thrive.

The opportunity for HR is to weave these practices into coaching, mentoring, and leadership development. Doing so will both elevate your organisation’s leadership impact and enhance and support the health and wellbeing initiatives already in place.

About: 

Enriched Leadership is a boutique leadership consultancy. We’re on a mission to help leaders perform, grow, and thrive. Through 360 assessments, we give leaders, teams, and boards the insight to accelerate development, deliver results, and create lasting impact.

Our services include:

• C-Suite Executives – Individual coaching
• Leadership Teams & Boards – Collective leadership development
• HR Teams – Tailored leadership programmes
• Firms – Inspiring keynote presentations

As a signatory of the Mindful Business Charter, we actively champion wellbeing in leadership as a driver of sustainable, resilient organisations.

Ready to elevate your leadership impact? Let’s start the conversation!

Book a call with Enriched Leadership today