It’s worth asking properly, because most people answer it too quickly.
Some leaders will say it isn’t overlooked at all.
They’ve got an EAP. A wellbeing day. A survey. A few policies.
So let’s test that.
If health is genuinely covered, why are work related stress levels in Britain at record highs?
The TUC reports that 964,000 workers are dealing with work related stress, depression or anxiety and 22 million working days are lost because of it.
That doesn’t suggest control.
It suggests something isn’t working.
“If it was working, the numbers wouldn’t look like this.”
The same pattern shows up elsewhere.
Around two thirds of adults in England are either overweight or living with obesity.
High blood pressure is widespread, often undiagnosed and still referred to as a silent killer.
So again, it’s worth asking …
If this is being managed properly, why are those numbers where they are?
When someone says, “We’ve got this covered,” what do they actually mean?
Covered by what?
A hotline after the damage is done? A poster in the kitchen? A box ticked in HR? A motivational wellness day?
“Most organisations don’t manage health. They manage the consequences of ignoring it.”
Because none of that tells you whether your senior team is actually operating well.
Whether decisions are being made with clarity. Whether pressure is being handled properly. Whether recovery is happening at all.
That’s the gap.
Most organisations focus on what happens at the end.
Revenue. Absence. Attrition. Missed targets.
Very few look upstream at what drives those outcomes in the first place.
“You don’t suddenly get poor performance. You get a slow decline that no one is measuring.”
Leaders rarely fall apart in one obvious moment.
It’s more subtle than that. Performance tightens, patience shortens, decisions become more reactive. It often looks like normal pressure from the outside, which is why it goes unnoticed for so long.
Until it doesn’t.
I’m not saying no one is addressing this.
Some organisations are. Some leaders are doing the work themselves.
But if the national data shows rising stress, poor health markers and increasing pressure across the workforce, then the question still stands.
Why is health still treated as peripheral?
Why is it separated from performance?
Why are we comfortable talking about resilience and output…
But not the behaviours that actually underpin them?
“Health isn’t a wellbeing topic. It’s a performance driver and a risk factor.”
That’s the debate.
Not whether health matters. Everyone agrees it does.
The real question is whether it’s being taken seriously enough, early enough.
Because once the impact becomes obvious…
It’s already late.
So what do you think?
What are most organisations still missing?
Chat soon, Ollie.
#LeadershipHealth#PerformanceRisk#ExecutivePressure#OperationalCapability#WorkplaceStress#SustainedPerformance
