Do Your Leaders Lead for Intentional Engagement and Workforce Wellbeing?

The influence of leaders and managers on company culture and workforce wellbeing is well established. Gallup data shows that up to 70% of the variance in team engagement is attributable to managers, while research from UKG found that 69% of employees say their manager has the greatest impact on their mental health—on par with the influence of a domestic partner.

For organizations seeking sustainable performance, innovation, and resilience, the optimal approach is to combine supportive health resources with a positive, engaged workplace culture. Having one without the other undermines progress. For example, a McKinsey study demonstrated that robust health benefits paired with a poor work environment still led to burnout, disengagement, and associated costs. Yet many organizations underestimate this balance. According to research from Employee Benefits News, 78% of employers believe their culture, conditions, and benefits positively affect employee wellbeing.

Executives often overestimate their success in this area. Deloitte’s 2023 survey found that 80% of executives believed employee wellbeing had improved, compared with only 36% of employees. In 2024, 90% of executives reported their organization positively influenced wellbeing, while fewer than 60% of employees agreed.

A gap exists between the support and positive culture employers and leaders think they are providing and what their employees are actually experiencing. Closing the gap and truly helping more employees thrive continues to be a competitive opportunity.

This disconnect highlights both the challenge and the opportunity. Forward-thinking organizations can distinguish themselves by closing the gap—aligning culture and leadership behaviors with employee needs. The payoff is clear: healthier, more engaged employees drive retention, reduce costs, and unlock performance potential.

The Role of Leadership and Managers

Deloitte’s 2023 Well-being at Work survey revealed that 80% of employees see workload, stress, and long hours as the greatest barriers to wellbeing. While job design may not change overnight, managers can meaningfully reduce stress through how they lead, communicate, delegate, and recognize their teams.

Many managers underestimate the extent of their influence—or fail to recognize how their actions may unintentionally harm wellbeing.

Many managers are unaware of precisely how they impact the stress, wellbeing, and level of engagement of their teams.

Leaders who actively foster a supportive culture can strengthen engagement and resilience by:

• Building psychological safety so employees feel comfortable raising concerns or asking for help

• Seeking feedback and inviting employees to shape improvements in work processes

• Practicing transparent, empathetic communication and showing genuine care

• Modeling healthy behaviors, respecting boundaries, and promoting work-life balance

• Scheduling regular one-on-one time focused not only on performance but also on belonging and support

• Recognizing signs of stress, burnout, and mental health challenges, and checking in proactively
  

These practices hinge on emotional intelligence (EQ). While EQ training is often included in leadership programs, traditional approaches—focused on describing the skill and raising awareness—rarely translate into lasting behavioral change. Leaders must do more than “know” about emotional intelligence; they must practice it, particularly during periods of change or adversity when it is most critical and most commonly overlooked.

A major gap in EQ training is genuine self-awareness. Leaders need a deep understanding of their own emotional triggers, stress responses, and how these affect their teams. They must learn how automatic behaviors can transfer stress to others and, importantly, how to manage those responses. This requires moving beyond “check-box” training to structured, ongoing development that helps leaders apply EQ skills consistently in daily operations.

The investment pays dividends. Even without significant changes to benefits or job structures, developing truly emotionally intelligent managers can narrow the gap between leaders’ intentions and employees’ lived experiences. Doing so not only improves wellbeing and engagement but also delivers measurable benefits in talent retention, cost control, and organizational performance.

Could your leaders (and workforce) benefit from improved application of smart and intentionally engaging leadership? To learn more about HBD's leadership development programming that focuses on science-based education and practical implementation strategies to improve leader's knowledge of the stress response, brain reward systems, automatic behaviors, and how to create a more supportive and engaging work environment, contact us or check this page out.