In my work with leadership teams and corporate clients, I’ve asked thousands of managers and team members (via an anonymous live survey) to think of a great team they’ve been part of and identify what made it different. In these anonymous surveys, in nine out of ten cases, the top three factors are ‘we cared about each other’, ‘we had each other’s back’, and ‘we encouraged each other’.
This reinforces the importance of feeling like we belong, which is a fundamental need of all humans. These qualities also mirror what Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson calls ‘psychological safety’ —when team members feel they can be their authentic selves, suggest new ideas without fear, and challenge ideas they disagree with. Indeed, Google’s Project Aristotle found that psychological safety was by far the most important factor in their best teams. Some leaders call skills such as empathy, respect and compassion ‘soft skills’, but in today’s workplace we need a better term. As leadership author, consultant and former Silicon Valley executive Minette Norman argues, ‘Call them strong skills, brave skills, or leadership superpowers’.
Norman’s work highlights the courage and strength required to exercise these skills in the workplace. They are essential for leaders who want to create environments where employees feel valued, included and enabled. Treating your people well brings immense benefits in employee engagement, discretionary effort and productivity. Another factor influencing leaders across the world are workplace health and safety (WHS) laws. In Australia, for example, laws that came into effect in 2022 created genuine risk for leaders and managers who ignore workplace stress —criminal liability, personal fines and potential imprisonment aren’t theoretical anymore. Globally, the international standard ISO 45003 advocates the same urgency for building mentally healthy work cultures and reducing harmful risks.
But these laws also create significant opportunity. Managers who understand harmful work stress (psychosocial risks) and take reasonable action aren’t just protecting themselves legally. They’re also building stronger, more loyal teams. Research from Gartner, Gallup and Harvard Business Review shows that psychologically safe workplaces have 76 per cent higher engagement, 50 per cent more productivity and 74 per cent less stress. The managers getting ahead of this aren’t spending more time on compliance —they’re spending their time differently, having better conversations and getting better results.
The solution: A great leader’s care mindset
What if you could stay fresh, focused and flexible? Imagine if you knew practical things to do each day that boosted your energy and your team’s. What if leadership could be a desirable, fulfilling role rather than a burnout sentence?
The most effective leadership strategy isn’t rescuing people from crisis —it’s preventing crisis in the first place. Think of it like this: it’s much easier to maintain good health than to recover from a heart attack. It’s important you keep your team (and yourself) in what I call the ‘green zone’ —that space where people feel energetic, optimistic and resourceful. The alternative is the ‘red zone’, where people feel angry, depressed and ashamed. The three pillars of prevention, early intervention and performance are:
- Self-care: Building your own resilience so you can lead from strength rather than desperation. When you’re running on empty, you have nothing to give your team.
- Crew care: Creating belonging, and safe, resilient groups. This isn’t about being soft; it’s about building the foundations for high performance.
- Red-zone care: Knowing how to identify and support struggling team members effectively, without burning out yourself or becoming their therapist.
These pillars are all critical, and interconnected. Together, they increase resilience and growth and reduce risk, building sustainable success. Organisations with strong management pipelines have higher retention, better performance and healthier cultures. Employees who feel supported are twice as likely to work in sustainable environments and experience fewer conflicts.
Edited extract from Great Leaders Care (Wiley $34.95) by Graeme Cowan. Graeme is a leadership speaker, Founding Board Director of R U OK?, and host of The Caring CEO podcast. He is also the co-founder of WeCARE365 that creates award winning eLearning to help managers to have better burnout prevention conversations. Visit https://graemecowan.com.au/
