- 2 October 2026
Read time: 3 minutes
Summary: Pam Burrows has been helping leaders and teams stress less and perform better for over 35 years, both locally and internationally in this comment blog she explores the importance of psychological safety and wellbeing for governance professionals.
With increasing workloads, budget pressures and organisational changes, many governance professionals face significant workplace pressures. Often operating in complex environments, many find themselves juggling competing priorities and expectations. The central role of the governance professional in organisational decision-making, also means the consequences of said decisions can feel substantial.
What impact is this growing pressure having on employee wellbeing? According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 964,000 workers in Great Britain were suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25, with stress-related conditions accounting for more than half of all reported work-related ill health.
This isn't just an individual issue however, the problem exists at both an organisational level and across sectors. NHS England's Freedom to Speak Up reforms announced earlier in 2026, have reinforced the importance of creating cultures where employees feel able to raise concerns. New arrangements introduced by NHS England place greater accountability on healthcare organisations to embed effective "Freedom to Speak Up" processes and ensure staff have safe routes for raising concerns. The changes reflect a growing recognition that psychological safety is not just a wellbeing issue but a governance and organisational effectiveness issue too.
A difficult economic climate means that globally, workplaces are seeing greater budget cuts and more redundancies, meaning that fewer employees are left to carry the workload. In these environments, people may feel unable to speak up when something is wrong because they fear their job could be at risk. Others become numb to difficult situations and think, "What's the point of saying anything? There isn't any budget to address it anyway." In many organisations, problems that are well known within certain teams never reach senior leadership because the organisation lacks a culture of psychological safety.
At one end of the spectrum, someone who is new to the organisation or relatively junior may feel afraid to speak up, even when they have valuable observations. At the other end of the spectrum, senior individuals may avoid speaking up because they fear being perceived as incompetent or as not having all the answers. Psychological safety is about enabling people to perform at their best. In governance and boardroom environments, the consequences of decisions are often far-reaching, which makes it even more important that people feel able to challenge, question and contribute openly.
While responsibility for wellbeing and psychological safety often sits with leaders, people teams and culture specialists, governance professionals can play an important supporting role by ensuring effective speak-up mechanisms, reporting routes and governance frameworks are implemented. The success of any organisation depends on its people. Are they happy, well and engaged, or are they frustrated and overwhelmed? Organisations need to take responsibility for what is within their control. If they fail to do so, they risk losing their best people, increasing recruitment costs and creating both ethical and financial consequences.
While governance professionals may not own wellbeing programmes, the work they do affects people throughout the organisation. This places them in a great position to influence how psychological safety is embedded across an organisation. This can include ensuring effective whistleblowing and speak-up mechanisms are in place, supporting board discussions on culture and workforce engagement, monitoring how concerns are escalated, and ensuring risks relating to culture and employee wellbeing are reported appropriately.
Time pressure is something that affects many employees but through my work with legal teams and governance professionals, I've seen how often they are excluded from projects in the early stages and then brought in at the last minute with very tight deadlines. This creates a pressure cooker of demand and can have an enormous effect on mental wellbeing. Being able to recognise our own needs is the first step to prioritising our own health and wellness. If a colleague told us they were exhausted and needed a break, we would rarely say, "Finish that document first." Yet we say things like that to ourselves all the time.
These standards are often perpetuated at a senior level. People pay attention to how leaders talk about challenges, setbacks and wellbeing. Therefore, leaders across the board play a critical role in cultural change inside organisations because they model the behaviours they want others to demonstrate
I remember one session where a chief executive was introducing me. I had no idea what he was going to say. He spoke openly about experiencing a breakdown and the lessons he had learned from that experience. He explained that it had made him realise how important wellbeing was and why he wanted the organisation to take it seriously. His honesty and vulnerability came across incredibly powerfully. It showed employees that it was acceptable to speak up if they were struggling. When leaders are prepared to be open about their own challenges, it creates trust and encourages others to do the same.
It requires both personal and organisational change for people to realise that looking after themselves is just as important as all the other priorities they focus on every day, but that lightbulb moment can be transformational. Good governance depends on people feeling able to speak up, challenge decisions and raise concerns when something is not right.
Creating cultures where people feel psychologically safe, while also protecting the wellbeing of those responsible for governance, leads to better decision-making, stronger organisational resilience and healthier workplaces. When organisations invest in both wellbeing and psychological safety, they create a virtuous circle rather than a vicious one.
Find out more about psychological safety and wellbeing, join Pam at Governance North 2026 for her closing keynote "Safe to Shine: Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety and Wellbeing"