Did I tell you that I was the Director of a Masters programme on Mental Health and Wellbeing for 5 years? On the programme, I taught a module called From Stress to Health at Work — while severely burnt out. The irony.
You might be unsurprised to hear that one of the strongest influences of wellbeing at work is leadership.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses show that the quality of leadership is associated with job satisfaction, job well-being, sickness absences, and disability. Transformational leadership styles — those that inspire and motivate others to envision a brighter future for themselves and their organisation — are positively associated with mental wellbeing at work, whereas destructive leadership styles exert a strong negative effect on mental wellbeing.
Our leaders can be a major risk to our health.
Leaders set the tone for the culture of a community, organisation, or nation. Take a look around at the world today and you are blinded by far too many examples of destructive leadership — leaders who act in self-interest and are seemingly determined to annihilate the earth and all living beings on it.
We must be very careful about who we bestow power upon.
Power differentials are an inherent aspect of our current hierarchical, competitive system, and they’re not just a social problem — power affects humans on a neurological level.
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