Leadership Training: The Lever That Strengthens Every Other Measure
An effective investment in WHP: training on healthy leadership strengthens the impact of the other action areas – and can be documented as a measure in the psychological risk assessment.
Why is leadership a strong health factor?
Research shows a clear link between leadership behavior and employee health and well-being – leadership can be a resource or a burden (review: Gregersen et al., Das Gesundheitswesen, 2011). A manager who provides clarity, tolerates mistakes, respects boundaries, and shows appreciation protects their team better than the best fitness program. And these behaviors can be trained.
What does a good training program teach?
Healthy leadership is not a self-optimization course. The focus is on concrete situations – the difficult conversation, the overburdened employee, the conflict within the team – and effective behavior in those moments. Topics such as appreciation as a leadership principle, dealing with mistakes, psychological safety, and one's own leadership behavior under stress are not soft topics; they are the hardest-hitting levers of health prevention.
When and for whom is the training suitable?
Ideal is a training series of two to three modules that leaves room for real cases from the company itself – not purely frontal instruction. It's complemented by self-reflection on one's own leadership style and clear guidelines that serve as orientation after the training. Content-wise, the topic of psychological strain should be explicitly addressed. A good complement is the best practice Conflict Management: The Training Nobody Wants and Everybody Needs.
How do you put the measure in place?
- 1Define the group of managers and clarify needs: which topics are pressing – communication, employee conversations, dealing with strain?
- 2Select a qualified trainer or provider for health-oriented leadership and request offers
- 3Agree dates for a training series (several modules) with the managers and block the calendars
- 4Obtain a binding commitment from the management board so that participation has priority
- 5Hold a kick-off event and make the goal clear: healthy leadership affects absence and retention (Fehlzeiten-Report 2011 "Führung und Gesundheit" – absence report on leadership and health)
- 6Collect the managers' expectations and let them feed into the further modules
- 7Send out binding invitations to the follow-up dates of the training series
- 8Run the training modules in a fixed rhythm (e.g. one building block every 2–3 weeks)
- 9Assign concrete practice tasks between the modules – e.g. holding structured employee conversations
- 10Establish peer exchange among managers to discuss experiences and cases
- 11Ask managers to reflect on what has concretely changed in their day-to-day leadership
- 12Collect feedback from the teams on whether communication and the quality of conversations are noticeably better
- 13Plan refresher sessions and anchor healthy leadership in the leadership guidelines
What do you need for it?
- Effort
- multi-day
- Cost
- with budget
- Duration
- 16–24
- Setup
- 960 min
- ✓ Multiplier effect
- ✓ Culture change
- ✓ Sustainable
Tax and health insurance: what is possible
Employer health benefits can be tax-free under § 3 no. 34 of the German Income Tax Act (EStG) up to €600 per employee per year — if they are provided in addition to the salary already owed and are either certified (§ 20 SGB V) or implemented within the company's health promotion process. Gym memberships and corporate fitness are not covered. For ZPP-certified courses (e.g. from Upfit), German statutory health insurers can reimburse all or part of the course fee to their insured members — then only the amount exceeding that reimbursement is tax-free. Projects within the company can be funded under § 20b SGB V, with no entitlement. Only your tax adviser can confirm the tax exemption.
How it works in EasyWHP
This Best Practice in EasyWHP: adopt it, adapt it, measure the effect
Once adopted, the measure is ready in EasyWHP — with instructions, an invitation and surveys before and after. You adapt what fits your company and see at the end what it achieved.
Screenshots with demo data, no real people.
Adopt it for your company
Register for free — and the measure is ready to go in your cockpit: invitation, feedback survey and appointment are already set up. First cycle, first numbers for the boss.
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Contributes to
Action field
Healthy Leadership →A fitting occasion
- Leadership Kickoff: Healthy Leadership for the New Year
Related Best Practices
Not sure where to start? Self-check in approx. 7 minutes →