25/02/2025

The Mental Health & Well-Being Leadership Gap

Why Leaders Are Still Getting Well-Being Wrong (and What to Do About It)

The Problem: Mental Health Isn’t a ‘Nice-to-Have’—It’s a Leadership Imperative

A decade ago, mental health was still a whispered topic in the workplace—something for HR to deal with, or worse, something seen as a personal issue rather than an organisational one. Fast forward to today, and mental health is the leadership challenge of our time.

The numbers don’t lie:

📊 One in four people in the UK will experience a mental health issue each year (Mind, 2023).
📊 57% of UK employees have experienced moderate to high levels of stress at work in the past year (CIPD, 2023).
📊 44% of workers say their company does not offer adequate mental health support (Mental Health UK, 2023).

Yet, despite all the “We take mental health seriously” posters in office kitchens, most leaders are still getting it completely wrong.

Here’s why.

Where Leaders Are Going Wrong

1️⃣ Confusing Well-Being Perks with Well-Being Culture
Throwing in yoga sessions, fruit bowls, and mental health apps isn’t enough if the culture still punishes people for needing rest.

2️⃣ Expecting HR to ‘Fix’ It
Mental health isn’t an HR policy—it’s a leadership responsibility. If your managers don’t know how to have mental health conversations, the culture won’t change.

3️⃣ Normalising Stress Instead of Addressing It
Phrases like “It’s just a busy period” or “We’re all feeling it” dismiss real struggles and reinforce burnout culture.

4️⃣ No Training, No Tools, No Clue
Most managers are completely unprepared to deal with mental health. They either avoid it entirely or overstep, trying to ‘fix’ problems they’re not qualified to handle.

5️⃣ Saying ‘We Support Mental Health’—But Rewarding Overwork
If promotions, pay rises, and praise only go to those who push themselves to breaking point, your company is rewarding burnout, not well-being.

👉 The result? Employees don’t feel psychologically safe to speak up, leaders feel out of their depth, and well-being remains just another corporate buzzword.

It’s time to do better.

The Lead Happy Approach: Leadership is the Missing Piece of the Well-Being Puzzle

At Lead Happy, we believe that leaders are the front line of workplace well-being. The best mental health strategy isn’t just a policy—it’s the way leaders show up, communicate, and set the tone for their teams.

✅ From ‘Reaction’ to ‘Prevention’ – Instead of just supporting employees when they’re already struggling, we help leaders build work environments that prevent stress overload in the first place.

✅ From ‘Saying the Right Things’ to ‘Doing the Right Things’ – Leaders can’t just talk about well-being; they have to model healthy behaviours. That means not glorifying overwork, taking breaks, and respecting boundaries.

✅ From ‘Awareness’ to ‘Real Skills’ – We give leaders the confidence, language, and tools to actually support their teams’ well-being. No awkward “So, um… are you okay?” conversations—real, human leadership.

🔥 5 Practical Ways Leaders Can Close the Well-Being Gap 🔥

1️⃣ Ditch the ‘Always On’ Culture

Workplace stress isn’t just about workload—it’s about never being able to switch off.

🔹 Try this: Set a ‘no emails after 7pm’ rule—but more importantly, make sure leaders actually follow it.

2️⃣ Train Your Managers to Have Real Conversations

Most leaders want to support mental health—but they don’t know how.

🔹 Try this: Give managers practical mental health training—so they know what to say, what not to say, and when to escalate issues.

3️⃣ Stop Rewarding Burnout Behaviour

If success in your organisation means working 60-hour weeks, your mental health policy is a joke.

🔹 Try this: Recognise, promote, and reward leaders who create balanced, high-performing teams—not just the ones who grind the hardest.

4️⃣ Make Rest & Recovery Part of the Culture

The most productive teams aren’t the ones who never stop—they’re the ones who know when to pause.

🔹 Try this: Mandatory mental health days—if you want people to rest, make it non-optional.

5️⃣ Lead By Example

If a leader never takes a break, never logs off, and never talks about their own well-being, their team won’t either.

🔹 Try this: Have senior leaders share what they do for their own well-being—this normalises self-care at every level.

Final Thoughts: If You Want High Performance, You Need High Well-Being

The best teams aren’t just productive—they’re psychologically safe, engaged, and well-supported.

At Lead Happy, we help leaders close the mental health leadership gap, equipping them with the skills, mindset, and strategies to build teams that perform without burning out.

🔹 Want to build a well-being-first leadership culture? Let’s talk.