Why Leading People Feels Harder Than It Used To

Work, Life Stress, and the Hidden Expectations Placed on Leaders

Liz Horvath, Founder and President

Hale Health and Safety Solutions Ltd.

For many b

usiness owners and leaders today, leadership feels heavier than it used to. It’s no longer just about setting direction, managing performance, and delivering results. Leaders are expected to navigate increasingly complex human dynamics — supporting employees through stress, uncertainty, and change, while still meeting operational, financial, and legal responsibilities.

What’s often left unspoken is how much of this complexity exists without a clear playbook.

The nature of leadership has changed

Leaders are now expected to manage relationships across multiple levels — employees, peers, clients, partners, and sometimes union representatives — in ways that support psychological health and safety. This requires greater awareness of how decisions, words, and behaviours affect people as whole human beings, not just as roles or job titles.

At the same time, leaders themselves are whole people too. They bring their own responsibilities, pressures, and limits to work — as well as their hopes and aspirations for the organizations and people they lead.

Stress doesn’t always show up clearly

Employees don’t leave financial strain, caregiving responsibilities, health concerns, or major life transitions at the door. Sometimes these pressures show up visibly in performance or behaviour. Other times, they remain hidden — especially in workplaces where mental health is still stigmatized or where employees fear that speaking up could affect their career or reputation.

Stress can be concealed beneath high performance just as easily as it can erode focus, decision-making, and working relationships over time. Either way, it affects how work is experienced and how teams function.

Leaders may not always see these changes clearly, particularly in workplaces where teams are remote, field-based, or spread across multiple sites. Limited visibility is not a leadership failure — it’s a reality of how modern work is structured.

Why even good leaders hesitate

Most leaders care deeply about their people and want to do the right thing. Many get it right far more often than they give themselves credit for — through thoughtful conversations, respectful boundary-setting, and genuine care that builds trust.

At the same time, leaders operate in environments where the consequences of getting it wrong can be significant. A misstep can cause harm, escalate conflict, or create legal and reputational risk. It can also affect a leader’s credibility, career, and personal wellbeing. In today’s culture, where judgment can be swift and amplified through social media, even well-intentioned mistakes can feel unforgiving.

This creates a difficult tension: leaders know that engaging builds trust — and they also know that mistakes can carry wide-reaching consequences. Over time, hesitation can take hold, not because leaders don’t care, but because fear and uncertainty begin to outweigh confidence.

Clarity matters more than perfection

One of the greatest sources of stress for leaders in this space is uncertainty about where their responsibility begins and ends.

Leaders are not counsellors or therapists, nor are they responsible for fixing people’s personal lives. What they are responsible for is creating and maintaining conditions where people can work safely, respectfully, and productively — through how work is designed, expectations are set, and concerns are addressed.

Ethical leadership requires compassion, but not at the expense of sustainability. Compassion without boundaries can lead to burnout and poor judgment, undermining both leaders and the people they support.

When leaders have clearer frameworks, shared understanding, and appropriate support, they are better able to engage early, respond confidently, and build trust through consistency rather than caution.

A place to start

There may be no single playbook for leading through the intersection of work, life stress, and psychological health — but leaders don’t need all the answers to move forward thoughtfully.

A useful place to start is reflection:

• Where are you already leading well?

• Where do you notice hesitation or strain?

• What clarity or support would help you lead more confidently and sustainably?

Author Bio

Liz Horvath is the Founder and President of Hale Health and Safety Solutions Ltd. She works with leaders and organizations that care deeply about their people and want to build psychologically healthy and safe ways of working that support both wellbeing and performance. With deep experience in psychological health and safety, Liz is known for helping leaders move beyond compliance toward practical, people-centred approaches that create healthier workplaces and more sustainable leadership.