Leaders Are Carrying More Than They Can Say Out Loud

Leadership has always carried weight, but lately it seems heavier in ways that are hard to describe. It’s more emotional, more unpredictable, more complicated. It feels like pressure coming from every direction at once, and often you don’t even realise how much it’s grown until you’re already standing under it.

And I’m not talking about politicians. I’m talking about the real leaders I meet every week. The people running farms, worksites, businesses, classrooms, health teams, sporting clubs and community organisations. The ones communities rely on. The ones everyone turns to. The ones doing everything they can to hold things together, even when they feel like they’re holding themselves together with baling twine.

The deadlines don’t slow down. The expectations keep rising. The tough conversations keep coming. The cultural differences, the language barriers, the performance pressures, the staffing shortages, they all pile up. And threaded through all of it is the word I’m hearing everywhere across Australia right now: uncertainty.

Everyone feels it, but leaders feel it in a way that cuts deeper. There’s uncertainty about staffing, uncertainty about markets, uncertainty about budgets, uncertainty about decisions being made above your head, and for many, uncertainty about whether they’ll even have a job tomorrow. People are tired of feeling like the ground is constantly shifting beneath them. And the truth is, a lot of workplaces have become brutal places to exist in. Decisions made “up the chain” are often driven by finances, not people. Numbers are prioritised over wellbeing, cost-cutting over culture, accountability over support. And the leaders in the middle are left absorbing the shock waves while trying to keep their teams steady.

I see you. I hear you. I’ve walked in those same boots.

When I managed a large, diverse dairy team, uncertainty was a constant companion. Everything could turn in an instant, the weather, the prices, the staffing situation, even someone’s emotional state walking through the gate at 4am. I’d start the morning not knowing if I’d have enough hands to milk the herd or whether a personal crisis would derail the whole day. Leadership can feel like carrying a load no one prepared you for, a load that doesn’t care how tired you are or how close you are to breaking.

And here’s the part we hardly ever talk about: leadership wellbeing.

We talk a lot about employee wellbeing, and we should, but almost no one asks how the leader is coping. Leaders are expected to be steady regardless of how unstable things are around them. They’re expected to absorb the uncertainty, cushion their people from it, and somehow make everyone else feel safe even when they don’t feel safe themselves.

The reality is that most leaders were never taught how to carry this kind of emotional and psychological weight. No one gives you a manual for holding space for someone else’s stress without letting it choke your own wellbeing. No one teaches you how to stay grounded when decisions from above pull the rug out from under your feet. No one shows you how to take care of yourself when you’re the one responsible for taking care of everyone else.

It’s no wonder so many leaders feel overwhelmed, burnt out or stretched right to the edge. I’ve stood in that place, the place where you tell yourself to push through, toughen up, be strong, until you realise even the strongest people crack if they carry too much for too long.

We’ve turned the term “psychosocial risk” into a buzzword, but when you strip away the jargon, it’s really just about pressure. Real, human pressure. The kind that sits quietly in people’s minds and bodies, the kind that makes it harder to think clearly, communicate openly, or stay emotionally steady. Pressure from workloads, pressure from conflict, pressure from uncertainty, pressure from change, pressure from feeling undervalued. These pressures don’t disappear when you step into leadership. If anything, they intensify. And leaders often have even less room to deal with them because they’re so busy looking after everyone else.

This is why modelling wellbeing as a leader matters so much. Not the performative kind. Not the “tick-the-box” kind. But the real kind, the kind where you live what you want to see. When you show your team what balance looks like, they learn that it’s safe to find balance. When you’re honest about your limits, they learn that honesty isn’t weakness. When you steady yourself instead of constantly pushing past exhaustion, they learn that steadiness is strength. People don’t follow wellbeing policies. They follow the human being in front of them.

And I’ve learnt something from speaking with leaders across every industry imaginable: wellbeing programs don’t create wellbeing. People do. Culture does. Leadership does. A poster isn’t going to hold a workplace together, a leader will.

If a leader is exhausted or on edge or quietly breaking under the weight of it all, the whole team feels it. But when a leader is steady, supported, connected and genuinely well, the workplace changes. People breathe easier. Conversations become safer. Expectations become clearer. Pressure becomes manageable.

Leaders don’t need to be perfect. They don’t need to have all the answers. But they do need support. They need space. They need someone asking them the same questions they’re expected to ask everyone else, questions like: How are you really going? What’s weighing on you right now? What uncertainty is keeping you awake? And what load can be taken off your shoulders instead of piled on?

Leadership isn’t just about performance. It’s about capacity. It’s about emotional wellbeing. It’s about clarity in the middle of chaos. It’s about showing up strong because you’re supported, not because you’re pretending.

When leaders thrive, workplaces thrive. When leaders struggle, the whole system struggles. And when leaders feel safe, their teams feel safe.

The future of leadership isn’t about being tougher. It’s about being healthier. It’s about pressure-proofing the people who carry the most pressure. Because wellbeing isn’t optional, it’s the foundation of culture, performance and human connection.

And no spreadsheet, no cost-cutting decision, no shiny new initiative will ever match the power of a leader who is steady, supported and genuinely well. A leader who models what wellbeing really looks like.