A manager joins their one-on-one meeting. They’re already behind on emails, have several approaching deadlines, and have a day full of meetings ahead. Their direct report starts to talk, hesitates, and then admits they’re not okay. The manager freezes. They want to help, but they don’t know how.
This moment plays out in workplaces every day. And when it does, it quietly erodes trust—not just in that relationship, but in your entire mental health strategy.
According to Spring Health’s 2025 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, 41% of employees are neutral or lack confidence in their leaders’ ability to support their mental health. That’s not just a soft signal of cultural misalignment—it’s a flashing warning sign for HR leaders and the C-suite alike. When that trust is broken, employees stop engaging, stop using benefits, and ultimately leave.
This is the leadership gap. And if we don’t address it head-on, we’ll continue to see underutilized programs, rising burnout, and leaders who are just as overwhelmed as their teams.
Explore our Forrester Consulting insights to better understand what’s fueling this leadership gap and how organizations are closing it.
Understanding the disconnect in workplace mental health leadership
The Forrester study, Mental Health At Work, found that 66% of employees who believe their leadership actively fosters a culture of mental wellbeing feel supported, compared to just 49% of those who don’t see that cultural investment from their leaders.
This 17-point gap isn’t about benefits access. It’s about leadership behavior. When managers actively support mental health, employees feel it. When they don’t, no policy or offering can fill the void.
Still, many leaders lean on legacy tools like EAPs and flexible work policies, while employees ask for something different: real, human connection and support from the people they report to.
After years in organizational development, I can tell you that culture isn’t built from brochures. It’s built moment by moment in how managers show up. If leaders aren’t talking about mental health or modeling what care looks like, no one will believe it’s truly safe to engage.
Burnout is rising, but mental health engagement isn't
According to the Forrester study, 44% of employees say they’re more stressed than they were five years ago—which is especially striking considering five years ago, we were in a global pandemic. And yet, only 55% feel very or extremely likely to use their mental health benefits. Rising stress doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It often goes unaddressed when leaders are unequipped to respond, telling us something deeper is broken.
From what I see, mid-level managers are some of the most affected. They’re stuck between delivering business outcomes and absorbing their teams’ emotional toll. They’re expected to execute change, motivate people, coach performance, and often do their own work too.
I often describe it this way: when managers are burned out, they’re in survival mode. And when you're surviving, there's no extra energy to offer support to others. That’s why so many employees feel under-supported. The people they look to for support are struggling too.
It’s not just about the volume of work, either. It's the emotional weight of showing up for others when you're not okay yourself. I've had countless conversations with leaders who show up to one-on-ones, not knowing whether they'll be met with a project update or someone in tears. That emotional labor adds up.
Why manager mental health training improves workplace outcomes
The good news is that employers are prioritizing mental health education and support for managers, and that shift couldn’t come at a better time.
Done right, leadership training is one of the highest-leverage interventions we have. Not only does it increase trust, but it also boosts benefit utilization, retention, and team performance. It can also be the difference between a struggling team and one that feels supported and resilient.
At its core, great leadership training should do four things:
- Build mental health literacy. Managers need to understand how mental health challenges show up in the workplace and how they can respond without overstepping.
- Increase burnout awareness. Leaders should know the signs of burnout in themselves and their teams, how to prevent it before it escalates, and how to respond when it appears.
- Develop empathetic communication. It's not just what you say, it’s how you say it. Leaders need the tools to have real, human conversations—not just status updates.
- Strengthen trust. Psychological safety starts with trust. When leaders create environments where people feel safe to speak up, everything improves: culture, innovation, and care engagement.
At Spring Health, we integrate these pillars into our leadership training. But what really makes it stick is the clinical foundation. These aren’t just "nice to have" concepts—they're grounded in research and outcomes. And that’s key for organizations being asked to show real ROI.
We’ve seen that teams with trained managers report higher utilization of mental health benefits. They're also more likely to stay and be engaged. That’s not anecdotal—it’s measurable.
It’s also important to remember that even when managers do all of this well, it doesn’t always feel good. Supporting someone through burnout or a mental health challenge can be emotionally heavy. Managers can offer relief, empathy, and guidance, but they can’t make it all better. And they shouldn’t feel like they’re failing if things don’t improve overnight. That’s why we coach leaders to release the self-imposed expectation that support means solving the problem. Often, the most powerful thing a manager can do is show up with care and consistency.
Building systems for sustainable manager support
One of the challenges I see repeatedly is that even well-meaning organizations treat manager support as an afterthought. They’ll roll out employee benefits, but leave the people managing those employees without the tools to make those benefits actionable.
That’s why our organizational support model at Spring Health is intentionally layered. We don’t just offer care to employees. We build wraparound support for the managers leading them. That includes:
- Live leadership coaching sessions
- Structured toolkits for responding to employee disclosures
- Personalized consultation with clinical experts
- Crisis response planning and recovery support
We also help HR teams build internal systems, so this isn’t a one-off training session—it becomes part of how your culture functions.
This level of support matters because every organization is different. A manager in a manufacturing plant will face different mental health conversations than one in a software company. We help contextualize that training so it actually sticks.
How organizations are transforming workplace mental health leadership
I’m encouraged by what I see in the most forward-looking organizations. They’re not chasing trends. They’re consolidating what doesn’t work and investing in what does: outcome-based training, manager empowerment, and scalable support systems. They’re also tailoring their offerings to focus on what’s proven to work instead of throwing every possible intervention at the wall to see what sticks. Quality over quantity is the mindset that makes a real difference.
One thing we do at Spring Health that continues to resonate is making workplace mental health leadership visible. For example, our executives publicly block time for therapy sessions on their calendars. When employees see this from the top, it sends a message: this isn’t just lip service. It’s real.
We also host internal mental health summits, where team members—including leaders—share their stories. Vulnerability doesn’t erode authority. In fact, it builds trust.
This is how we start closing the leadership gap: by making it okay to not be okay. By ensuring that when an employee reaches out, their manager is ready, not rattled.
Action steps to improve mental health at work
If you’re seeing low engagement with mental health benefits, here’s where I’d start:
- Audit your current leadership development. Are you teaching your managers how to build trust? How to talk about mental health? How to manage their own stress?
- Ask your people. Survey employees about whether they feel safe being honest about their mental health with managers.
- Equip your managers. Offer training that includes real-life scenarios, not just theory. Give them a safe place to ask hard questions.
- Build systems, not silos. Integrate manager support into your organizational structure—not just as an event, but as an ongoing practice.
- Find partners who get it. Look for mental health solutions that don’t just offer access, but actually help you create a culture of engagement. That’s what we do every day at Spring Health.
Closing the leadership gap through trust and training
Here’s what I remind myself: almost everyone wants to do a good job. If someone’s disengaged, they might be overwhelmed. If someone seems withdrawn, they might be struggling with something you can’t see.
That’s why trust matters. And that’s why leadership training and empowerment matters.
When we give managers the tools to care for their teams—and themselves—we’re not just improving engagement. We’re building a culture where mental health support is real, not performative.
Leadership training isn’t a check-the-box initiative. It’s one of the most strategic investments we can make. Because when leaders thrive, everyone has a better shot at thriving too.
If you’re rethinking how your organization supports mental health leadership, our Forrester study is a good place to start.
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