Your Wellbeing Strategy is Failing Because of Your Managers
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Gillian is the Managing Director of Emerge Development Consultancy, which she founded 28 years ago. She is a Master Executive Coach working with many CEOs and Managing Directors globally. She is also an international speaker and, in 2020, was named by f: Entrepreneur as one of the leading UK Female Entrepreneurs in the I also campaign. In 2023, she was named the Leader of the Year by the Women’s Business Club. In 2024, she was named Businesswoman of the Decade.
A bold statement, I know, but please read on because I have some observations and evidence to support it. Over the last few years, I have noticed an interesting contradiction. Organisations are investing more than ever in well-being initiatives, resilience training, mental health awareness programmes, wellbeing champions, meditation apps, Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) and Mental Health First Aiders. These interventions are valuable, and it is genuinely encouraging to see organisations talking more openly about mental health than ever before.
At the same time, I am coaching more people who are exhausted, overwhelmed and questioning whether they can continue operating at their current pace. Burnout appears to be rising, mental health-related absence remains high and many employees describe feeling emotionally drained by work.
The question that keeps coming back to me is this: if organisations are spending so much on well-being, why do so many employees still feel unwell?
The answer, I believe, is that employees do not experience well-being through organisational strategies, policies or well-being campaigns. They experience it through the person they interact with most frequently, their manager.
Just as employees do not experience culture through a values statement on the wall, they do not experience wellbeing through an app or a workshop. It happens every day through conversations, meetings, decisions, priorities and behaviours. It doesn't matter how impressive your wellbeing strategy is if employees are working for managers who are creating chronic stress, ambiguity, fear or emotional exhaustion.
The challenge is that many managers don't even realise this is happening. Most are doing their best while trying to manage significant pressure themselves. They are often caught between organisational demands and the needs of their teams, and as a result, they can unintentionally pass their own stress downwards.
This matters because managers have become one of the biggest influences on employee well-being, whilst also being one of the groups most at risk of burnout themselves.
The evidence supports this. The World Health Organization estimates that depression and anxiety cost the global economy around $1 trillion every year in lost productivity. Gallup's research suggests that managers account for approximately 70% of the variance in employee engagement. Research into psychological safety consistently demonstrates its importance as a predictor of performance, innovation and well-being. Yet despite organisations spending more than ever on wellbeing initiatives, burnout rates continue to rise. When you look beneath the statistics, a common theme emerges: leadership behaviour matters.
Managers shape psychological safety
When we look at why people leave organisations, it is often because of their manager rather than the organisation itself. In my coaching work, I rarely hear people complain about the quality of the wellbeing programme. What I hear instead are stories about poor communication, unclear expectations, constant urgency, unpredictability, lack of trust and the feeling that no matter how hard they work, it is never quite enough.
These experiences create emotional exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion is often the precursor to burnout. One of the most common issues I see is what psychologists refer to as emotional contagion. Many leaders are completely unaware of the shadow they cast across their teams. Their mood, energy and behaviour set the emotional tone for everyone around them.
Teams can often tolerate significant pressure and heavy workloads if they genuinely feel supported by their manager and colleagues. However, when leaders unintentionally download their frustration, anxiety or overwhelm onto others, they become powerful amplifiers of stress.
The greatest challenge is often unpredictability. When employees never know which version of their manager is going to walk through the door, they become hypervigilant. Instead of focusing their energy on their work, they focus their energy on reading the room.
The science behind this is fascinating. Human beings have mirror neurons that help us recognise and experience the emotions of those around us. We subconsciously absorb cues from body language, facial expressions, tone of voice and behaviour. Research consistently shows that employees are more likely to mirror the emotional tone of their leader than that of their colleagues.
Negative emotions are particularly powerful. Research into Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs) demonstrates that negative thinking patterns spread faster and tend to linger longer than positive ones.
Most of us have experienced this. You walk into a meeting and your manager appears tense, overwhelmed and frustrated. Nobody has said anything explicitly, but within minutes, the atmosphere changes. Conversations become cautious, confidence drops and anxiety rises. Before long there is a quiet sense of panic circulating around the room. The manager may not have intended this, but the impact is real.
The hidden cost of micromanagement
Another issue I see regularly is micromanagement, often accompanied by excessive monitoring, reactive communication, inconsistent expectations, poor feedback delivery and pressure disguised as high performance.
Interestingly, many managers do not recognise these behaviours in themselves. They believe they are being supportive, staying close to the details, or helping people succeed. However, when oversight becomes excessive, the impact can be significant. Firstly, it consumes time. Secondly, it removes autonomy. Most importantly, it communicates a lack of trust.
Trust is one of the most powerful drivers of well-being at work. When people feel trusted, they tend to experience greater confidence, ownership and motivation. When they feel constantly monitored, they often become anxious, cautious and fearful of making mistakes. The result is a workforce that spends more energy protecting itself from criticism than creating value.
The problem with toxic positivity
The third issue I encounter frequently is toxic positivity. This usually comes from a good place. Managers want to motivate people, maintain morale and keep everyone focused on solutions. However, positivity becomes problematic when it starts denying reality.
Positivity is a strength. Denial is not. When managers insist on maintaining positivity regardless of circumstances, employees can begin to feel that normal human emotions are unwelcome. Frustration, disappointment, anxiety and uncertainty are treated as problems to overcome rather than emotions to acknowledge.
Comments such as "Let's focus on the positives", "It'll all be fine," or "Let's think ourselves lucky to have a job" may sound encouraging, but they can inadvertently dismiss legitimate concerns.
What employees often hear is, "Don't talk about difficult emotions", "Don't raise problems," or "Don't make me uncomfortable."
Suppressing emotions does not make them disappear. In fact, it often has the opposite effect. It prevents people from processing difficult experiences and can create even greater levels of stress over time.
Psychological safety requires honesty. People need to feel able to acknowledge challenges before they can move beyond them.
So, what do managers need to do?
The good news is that managers have enormous power to improve well-being. In fact, some of the smallest behavioural changes can have a greater impact than many of the expensive organisational interventions that companies invest heavily in every year.
Firstly, recognise the importance of managing your own emotional state before addressing tasks and communicating with your team. Your team will absorb your energy whether you intend them to or not. If you are having a particularly frustrating morning, take a moment to decompress before engaging with others.
Equally, it is impossible to transmit sustainable positive energy if you are exhausted yourself. Managers need to prioritise their own well-being as much as they encourage others to do the same.
Take time to genuinely check in with people. Not during the final five minutes of an operational meeting, but through meaningful conversations about how they are coping. Don't automatically accept "fine" as an answer.
Pay particular attention to your high performers. They are often the most vulnerable because they rarely complain, willingly take on additional work and frequently absorb emotional labour for the rest of the team. Just because someone isn't asking for help doesn't mean they don't need it.
Avoid normalising chronic stress. Pressure naturally comes in peaks and troughs, but when the peak becomes permanent, problems are rarely far behind.
Create clarity wherever possible. Ambiguity creates anxiety, particularly during periods of organisational change. Telling people "it will all be fine" rarely reassures them. What people are looking for is honest, timely and high-quality communication.
Be clear about expectations and what success looks like. There are few things more anxiety-inducing than trying to guess whether your manager is happy with your performance. Regular feedback and clear success measures reduce uncertainty and allow people to focus their energy productively.
Be conscious of the example you set. If you are constantly sending emails late at night, working every weekend and remaining permanently available, employees will assume this is the expected standard. Healthy boundaries do not happen by accident, they need to be modelled explicitly.
Pay attention to your language. In many organisations, everything seems to be a priority. Constant urgency creates unnecessary pressure and anxiety. Reserve urgency for situations that genuinely require it.
Finally, encourage recovery. Recovery is not the opposite of performance, it is what enables performance. Create opportunities to discuss energy, rest and sustainable working practices within your team. Ask people what helps them recharge and what gets in the way.
Finally, develop managers properly
Many managers are promoted because of their technical expertise rather than their leadership capability. Yet the skills that make someone a great individual contributor are often very different from those required to lead others effectively.
Every manager should understand emotional intelligence, psychological safety, coaching, communication and inclusive leadership. These are no longer "nice to have" skills. They are fundamental business capabilities.
The future of workplace well-being will not be determined by wellbeing apps, awareness campaigns or annual wellbeing weeks. It will be determined by the quality of leadership people experience every day.
Because managers do not simply influence performance. They influence people's health, confidence, energy, motivation and sense of self.
Until organisations recognise this, many well-being strategies will continue to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.
Read more from Gillian Jones-Williams
Gillian Jones-Williams, Emerge Development Consultancy
Gillian Managing Director of Emerge Development Consultancy, which she founded 25 years ago. She is a Master Executive Coach working with many CEOs and Managing Directors globally. She is also an international speaker and in 2020 was named by f: Entrepreneur as one of the leading UK Female Entrepreneurs in the hashtag Ialso campaign. In 2024, she was awarded Businesswoman of the Decade by the Women’s Business Club. Gillian founded the RISE Women’s Development Programme, which is delivered both in the UK and the Middle East, and in Saudi Arabia, and is her absolute passion. If you want to know more about our Diversity and Inclusion solutions or leadership and management development, please get in touch. We are working with many organisations on their Diversity and Inclusion interventions, strategies, policies, and programmes. For more information, contact us on 01329 820580 or via info@emergeuk.com
