Mental Health & Resilience
Leadership Development
Physical Wellbeing
Workplace CultureLeadership development that builds stronger managers and confident leaders
When managers are strong leaders, your organisation thrives. When they’re not, it shows.
Most managers were promoted for what they delivered, not for how they lead. When the people side of the role gets harder, that gap shows. Conversations get avoided, talented staff leave their managers rather than their organisations, conflict festers unresolved, and the issues no one wants to handle land on your desk.
Leadership development programs are structured training initiatives that build the communication skills, emotional intelligence, mental health awareness and team management capabilities managers need to lead effectively in modern Australian workplaces. Holistic Services Group has been designing and delivering leadership programs across Australia since 2003, supporting more than 1,600 corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit organisations.
Best Suited For
This pillar is right for you if you are responsible for any of the following:
- New and emerging managers stepping into formal leadership for the first time
- Experienced people leaders consolidating their practice or expanding scope
- Senior leaders and executives shaping organisational culture
- Leaders managing remote, hybrid or geographically distributed teams
- Leadership cohorts in restructure, transition or organisational change
- Managers carrying responsibility for psychosocial risk and team mental health
- Structured development pathways from frontline manager through to senior leadership
Strong Managers Protect Engagement, Performance and Psychosocial Health
Managers shape how your people experience work every day: the clarity of their role, the support they receive, and whether concerns are raised early or left to fester. Leadership capability is one important part of an effective organisational approach, alongside good work design, consultation and organisational controls.
- Managers shape engagement: Gallup’s ongoing employee experience research finds that the quality of management explains 70% of the variance in team engagement.
- Manager engagement has fallen: global manager engagement fell from 27% in 2024 to 22% in 2025, the steepest year-on-year decline on record, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026.
- Psychosocial duties require prevention: under the model WHS laws, PCBUs must eliminate psychosocial risks, or minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable, per Safe Work Australia’s Model Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work (2022). Leadership training can support this work, but it does not replace hazard identification, worker consultation, good work design or other organisational controls. Legal requirements and implementation dates vary by jurisdiction.
- Enforcement has real consequences: Court Services Victoria was fined $379,157 in October 2023 after workers were exposed to risks including high work demands, role conflict, poor workplace relationships and inappropriate workplace behaviour, per WorkSafe Victoria’s Court Services Victoria prosecution.
Talk to us about strengthening leadership capability across your organisation.
How HSG Approaches Leadership Development
HSG’s leadership programs are grounded in the Seven Pillars of Business Health, HSG’s proprietary framework developed as part of the Culture of Wellness© program. The framework provides a structured lens for identifying where your leadership culture is strong, where it is fragile, and where targeted development will have the most impact. Managers are the primary stewards of each pillar. They influence how each area is experienced day to day; their behaviour can strengthen it or introduce risk.
- Morale: recognition, energy and motivation across the team
- Attitude: mindset, tone and problem-solving under pressure
- Performance: clarity, feedback and fair accountability
- Purpose: meaning, alignment and connection to mission
- Relationships: trust, listening and consistent follow-through
- Support: care, confidence and early intervention with struggling team members
- Acceptance & Inclusion: belonging, psychological safety and full contribution
Rather than generic management training, HSG designs programs that address the specific capability gaps in your leadership cohort: whether that’s psychological safety, handling mental health conversations, navigating conflict, building engagement across remote and hybrid environments, or developing the emotional intelligence that anchors every other leadership skill. Depending on the program, sessions may draw on motivational interviewing, positive psychology, adult-learning principles and evidence-informed leadership practice.
Suggested Program Pathways
Most organisations don’t need every program at once. Below are the four pathways HSG clients most often use, depending on the leadership challenge they’re addressing.
For new and emerging managers
Foundation pathway: Leadership Development Programs to build core capability, paired with Emotional Intelligence for Leaders to anchor the self-awareness and relational skills underneath everything else. Add Difficult Conversations Training to equip them with the hardest skill early, and layer in Manager Mental Health Training so they can handle staff distress with confidence from the start.
For experienced leaders managing change and uncertainty
Begin with Navigating Uncertainty for Leaders to equip the cohort with frameworks for decision-making and team leadership as context shifts. Pair with Managing Remote & Hybrid Teams where relevant, and add Psychological Safety for Leaders so teams keep speaking up through the change rather than going quiet.
For senior executives shaping culture
Emotional Intelligence for Leaders sets the foundation. Layer Psychological Safety for Leaders to model the team conditions that flow downward through the organisation. Combine with the broader Leadership Development Programs suite for executives whose direct reports also need development. Senior leaders set the tone for what gets modelled at every other level.
For organisations strengthening psychosocial risk controls
Combine Manager Mental Health Training, Psychological Safety for Leaders and Difficult Conversations Training to build manager capability in early conversations, speaking-up behaviours and conflict response. These programs can support a broader psychosocial risk strategy; they are not a substitute for hazard identification, worker consultation, work design, organisational controls or legal advice.
Who These Programs Are For
HSG’s leadership programs are designed for managers and team leaders at every level: new and emerging managers stepping into leadership for the first time, experienced people leaders consolidating their practice, senior leaders and executives shaping organisational culture, and leaders managing remote, hybrid or geographically distributed teams. Programs can be delivered to intact leadership cohorts, mixed groups across the organisation, or as part of a structured development pathway from frontline manager through to senior leadership.
What the Programs Involve
All programs can be delivered as individual sessions, a structured series, or part of an annual leadership development calendar. Sessions are available onsite across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and regional areas nationally. Virtual delivery is available nationwide and across Asia-Pacific.
Sessions are designed to be practical, respectful and scenario-based, not theoretical lectures. HSG’s specialist facilitators focus on frameworks and behaviours managers can apply the next day, with content pitched to the seniority and operational context of the cohort.
Leadership Programs by Focus Area
Each featured service below has a dedicated page where you can explore the format, delivery options and typical applications in more detail.
Leadership Development Programs
A comprehensive suite of workshops covering the core competencies of effective workplace leadership: communication, team motivation, managing performance, navigating uncertainty, and building psychologically safe teams. Suitable for new and emerging managers as well as experienced leaders consolidating their practice. Available as individual sessions or as a structured series across a planned delivery schedule.
Workshops within this service:
- Culture of Wellness© Leadership Training
- Mindful Leadership Workshop
- Introduction to The Seven Pillars of Business Health
Manager Mental Health Training
Equips managers to recognise early signs of distress in their teams, initiate mental health conversations with confidence, and navigate disclosure with care and compliance in mind. One of the most requested programs in HSG’s leadership suite. This training can strengthen manager capability within a broader psychosocial risk management approach; it does not by itself satisfy an organisation’s WHS duties.
Workshops within this service:
- Empowering Leaders: Navigating Mental Health in the Workplace
Psychological Safety for Leaders
Focuses on creating the conditions where team members feel genuinely safe to speak up, take risks, and raise concerns without fear of judgment or retaliation. Psychological safety can support speaking up, learning, constructive challenge and earlier escalation of concerns. It is one important team condition within a broader psychosocial risk approach. Targets people-leaders; complementary to the Psychological Safety Training in our Mental Health & Resilience pillar, which is designed for whole teams rather than leaders specifically.
Difficult Conversations Training
Practical frameworks for navigating the conversations managers avoid: performance issues, boundary-setting, conflict between team members, and feedback that needs to be delivered with care. Available for all staff or in a dedicated manager-focused format that addresses the specific challenges of leading from a position of authority.
Managing Remote & Hybrid Teams
Practical leadership skills for dispersed and hybrid teams: connection, communication, performance management, and engagement across distance. Designed for leaders whose teams now span home offices, different cities, or hybrid working arrangements where the daily connective tissue of an office no longer operates by default.
Workshops within this service:
- Building Strong and Effective Remote/Hybrid Teams
Navigating Uncertainty for Leaders
Resilience and decision-making strategies for leaders managing change, restructure or sustained organisational uncertainty. Equips leaders with frameworks for steady decision-making, supporting team morale through transition, and modelling composure when the way forward isn’t fully clear.
Workshops within this service:
- Navigating Uncertainty: Strategies for Resilience and Success for Leaders and Managers
Complementary cross-pillar offering: for team-wide resilience training to support managers’ messaging, see Resilience Training & Growth Mindset within our Mental Health & Resilience pillar.
Emotional Intelligence for Leaders
Training on emotional intelligence as the foundational leadership capability: self-awareness, empathy, emotion regulation, relational skill, and influence in difficult moments. The capability that sits underneath every other leadership skill, and the one most often left implicit in leadership development programs designed before emotional intelligence research matured.
Additional Programs Available
Beyond the seven featured services above, HSG offers a broader set of specialised leadership programs and coaching options. These can be requested individually or built into a wider leadership development program on enquiry.
Specialised Leadership Skills:
- Women in Leadership Workshop
- Motivational Interviewing and Counselling
- How to Facilitate Open and Authentic Communication
- Dealing with Workplace Harassment and Bullying for Leaders and Managers
- Enabling Talents in Your Team
- How to Keep Your Workforce Engaged
Coaching:
- 1-on-1 Leadership & Wellbeing Coaching (Mental Health Coaching)
- Wellness Business Coaching
Outcomes
What HSG can report after delivery
- Program completion and attendance rates
- Participant-reported confidence and capability
- Manager observations and post-program assessments
- Repeat enrolment for advancing cohorts
What the programs are designed to support
- Improved team engagement under the participating managers
- Stronger psychological safety in led teams
- More confident handling of mental health and difficult conversations
- Documented psychosocial risk management capability
- Improved retention in leadership cohorts
Why the investment matters
- Engagement and business outcomes: business units in the top quartile of engagement had 23% higher profitability, 51% lower turnover (in low-turnover organisations) and 63% fewer safety incidents than bottom-quartile units, according to Gallup’s Q12 Meta-Analysis, 11th Edition.
These business-unit associations do not prove that leadership training alone causes these outcomes; managers are one important influence alongside work design, organisational systems and broader workplace conditions.
Leadership Programs in Practice
BHP — Team Vision and Navigating Uncertainty
Industry: Resources / Mining
Challenge: Senior team needed to align on strategic direction and navigate significant uncertainty under considerable time pressure.
What HSG delivered: Custom leadership workshop on team vision and navigating uncertainty, designed and delivered on short notice. Included a facilitated presentation pack and interactive session structure.
Outcome: The client rated HSG 5/5 and said the session ran really well despite the short lead time.
St Vincent’s — Leadership Resilience Program
Industry: Healthcare
Challenge: Supporting both leaders and frontline staff with resilience and mental wellbeing in a high-pressure clinical environment.
What HSG delivered: Tailored resilience program delivered across two cohorts: leadership-focused sessions and general staff wellbeing workshops, covering stress management, resilience strategies and practical application.
Outcome: The client rated HSG 5/5 and praised the team’s professionalism, expertise and breadth of topics.
Australian Government Department of Employment — Resilience Workshop
Industry: Federal Government
Challenge: Staff across the department needed practical resilience tools and coping strategies to manage sustained workplace pressure.
What HSG delivered: Half-day resilience workshop covering stress management frameworks, resilience strategies and practical coping skills applicable to the public sector environment.
Outcome: Noticeable lift in team mood and energy by session’s end. Staff left with concrete, immediately applicable strategies. Unreserved recommendation from the client.
Client feedback
Holistic Services Group provided excellent service and support to put together a presentation pack and facilitate a workshop on Team Vision and Navigating Uncertainty on very short notice. Dana was a wonderful facilitator – session ran really well despite minimal preparation. Highly recommended!
Brian Wibawa
BHP
We partnered with Holistic Services Group to deliver resilience sessions tailored for both our leaders and general staff. Mae worked closely with us to identify the training that best suited our needs, and Dana facilitated the sessions on-site with professionalism and expertise. Both Mae and Dana were knowledgeable, engaging, and a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend Holistic Services Group for their exceptional team and comprehensive range of topics.
Peter J
St Vincent’s
We undertook a half-day Resilience Workshop and the facilitator delivered an engaging and interactive session — it certainly lifted everyone’s mood. This workshop was very beneficial to all staff, enabling them to refocus and gather some great coping strategies. The whole process from the initial contact with HSG to the delivery of the workshop was very professional and I would have no hesitation in recommending HSG.
Australian Government Department of Employment
Federal Government
Why HSG
HSG’s leadership facilitators hold professional qualifications in psychology, organisational behaviour, counselling and leadership development. Every session is facilitated by a specialist in the relevant discipline, not a generalist workshop presenter.
Depending on the program, sessions may draw on motivational interviewing, positive psychology, adult-learning principles, evidence-informed leadership practice and the Seven Pillars of Business Health framework. For organisations consolidating leadership, mental health, culture and physical wellbeing work under one provider, HSG’s Annual Wellbeing Program and Custom Workplace Wellbeing Strategy coordinate the full picture across a planned annual schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
HSG delivers leadership programs for managers and team leaders at every level, from newly appointed frontline managers through to senior executives. Content and scenarios are calibrated to the cohort’s seniority and the specific leadership challenges they face. Programs suit intact leadership teams, mixed cohorts across the organisation, or structured development pathways. Client organisations range in size from 50 to several thousand employees across the corporate, government, healthcare, education, and not-for-profit sectors.
Leadership development can support psychosocial risk controls by improving how managers consult, allocate and clarify work, respond to conflict, support workers and escalate concerns. It does not by itself establish compliance or replace hazard identification, worker consultation, good work design and organisational controls. Legal duties vary by jurisdiction, so HSG training should be positioned as one part of a broader psychosocial risk management approach. Supporting documentation is available on request for your records.
HSG reports back on program completion, participant confidence, capability ratings, and repeat enrolment. Across your organisation, the programs are designed to support improved team engagement under the participating managers, stronger psychological safety in led teams, more confident handling of mental health and difficult conversations, and documented psychosocial risk management capability. Outcomes are strongest when programs are delivered as a structured series across a planned schedule rather than one-off sessions.
Yes. HSG works with you before delivery to understand your leadership cohort, the specific capability gaps you need to address, and any organisational context that should shape the program. Sessions are designed around the real challenges your managers face, not off-the-shelf content.
Yes. Many organisations begin with a single workshop, often Manager Mental Health Training or Psychological Safety for Leaders, and build from there. A single session is a practical starting point and a useful way to assess fit. Contact HSG to discuss what would suit your team.
HSG programs focus on the human dimensions of leadership: psychological safety, mental health awareness, communication under pressure, emotional intelligence, and building team cultures where people feel supported and engaged. They are designed to address the leadership gaps that most directly affect staff wellbeing, retention and organisational risk, and complement rather than replace operational or technical management training.
HSG delivers leadership programs onsite in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and regional locations across Australia. Virtual delivery is available nationwide and across Asia-Pacific. Programs can be delivered as a single session, structured series or annual calendar and tailored to the cohort’s seniority and organisational context.
Trusted by 1,600+ organisations across Australia and Asia-Pacific
Supporting corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit sectors
HSG has supported more than 1,600 organisations across corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit sectors, including Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, BHP, the Department of Defence, St Vincent’s, the University of Sydney, Deakin University, The Smith Family and headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation.
Talk to Us About Building Your Leadership Program
Strong leaders don’t just manage performance. They protect your people, reduce your risk, and build the culture your organisation needs to sustain it. We respond to all enquiries within 12 business hours. Call us: 1300 889 073
