Wellbeing is not an add-on. It’s the foundation.

Much of it is thoughtful and generous, but it can also feel heavy - like an extra layer of pressure, particularly when life and work already feel full.

What I often notice is that wellbeing is treated as something additional, something to be “added on”. It becomes formalised into programmes, policies, or one-off workshops, usually hastily discussed once cracks begin to show in people or performance. Rather than being part of how work is designed, it sits alongside existing systems.

And that way of thinking has never sat comfortably, because for me, wellbeing is not an add-on. It is the absolute foundation upon which everything else rests.

What happens when wellbeing is treated as optional

When wellbeing is treated as optional or reactive, it rarely holds up under sustained pressure. People struggle when rest feels conditional, emotions are inconvenient, and exhaustion becomes normalised.

In organisations, this often presents itself in subtle ways. Decision-making becomes harder, relationships feel more brittle, and leaders spend more time firefighting, with less space to think clearly or support others in the way they would like to. Over time, this affects not only individuals, but the culture and performance of the entire business.

Because leadership does not happen in isolation from wellbeing. The state a leader is in shapes how they communicate, how they respond under pressure, and how safe others feel bringing their full selves to work.

When more is not the answer

A lot of the conversation around wellbeing focuses on doing more. More tools, more initiatives, more strategies to help people cope.

But adding more to already stretched lives does not create wellbeing. It often becomes yet another thing to manage, another expectation to carry. In my experience, burnout is not something you can ‘work harder’ your way out of - and chronic overload cannot be resolved through surface-level fixes.

Leaders are often asked to carry a lot on their shoulders, to stay steady, make rapid decisions, and support others, even when their own capacity is stretched thin. Without space to recover, reflect and recharge, it becomes harder to lead strategically, with empathy and consistency.

Over time, the impact goes beyond individual leaders. It shows up in how teams work together, in the quality of working relationships, and in the overall health of the business, often reaching into people’s lives outside work too.

Paying attention to what life and work actually feel like for the people inside a system, including those leading it, matters far more than adding another initiative on top.

The evolution of HumanKind, with wellbeing at its core

HumanKind is still evolving within this reality. Rather than being created from a position of having everything neatly worked out, the business is being shaped with wellbeing built in from the start, underpinning how we think, work, and support others. This is happening alongside the everyday experience of starting and growing something new - with all the momentum, excitement, uncertainty, and vulnerability that brings.

Alongside this, I am on a personal learning journey into complementary therapies, which has deeply influenced how HumanKind has taken shape, driven by a desire to better understand the human body, the nervous system, and the quieter ways people regulate, recover, and heal.

Being open, this often means I am very busy personally, and navigating that - alongside building something rooted in wellbeing - is not always straightforward. There are days when the pull to do more, work later, and push harder is strong, and days when the work itself asks me to slow down, pay attention, and question what success really looks like in practice.

That tension does not feel like a contradiction, or something to worry about. It feels like a natural, human part of the process.

A leadership lens on wellbeing

I’ve come to notice that people are often treated as problems to be fixed, when in reality they are usually doing their best within the systems they are part of, and with the circumstances they find themselves in.

For me, wellbeing begins when we move away from asking people to be more resilient to systems that are not serving them, and instead, pay closer attention to what their experience of being human actually feels like - then work with that. This matters just as much for leaders as it does for the people they support.

More often than not, authentic wellbeing shows up in small, everyday moments rather than policies or awareness weeks. In how work is structured, how conversations are handled, and whether there is space to pause, think, and breathe before pressure turns into overload.

That is the foundation we stand on at HumanKind.

When leaders are supported to work from a steadier place, they tend to lead more clearly, communicate more thoughtfully, and create environments where others feel able to do the same. From there, everything else has a far better chance of working well.