“It’s unfortunate that sometimes it takes that personal experience [to raise awareness], but it gave a lot of people at the firm that experience of, people’s well-being is really important,” says De la Torre. “that was a big shift for the organization of, mental health isn’t this buzzword, it really is something from which people suffer.’
For HR leaders, that story is a reminder that the tone for mental health is often set long before a crisis hits, and leadership — which isn’t immune to mental health issues — is where it can start. The question is how executive teams turn intent into daily behaviour, governance, and decisions that employees can see and trust.
Leadership trust as the foundation
For Sonia Boisvert, partner and Chief People officer at PwC Canada, the starting point is trust. Leaders can invest in benefits and awareness campaigns, but if employees don’t believe they can safely speak up about stress, burnout, or illness, those programs will underperform.
“They need to cultivate the trust, because if they have a trust-based relationship with our people, people will be open to speak up,” says Boisvert. “And with that, we’ll know who needs help and we can give them support and make sure we reference them to the right place.”
Boisvert argues that trust is earned through observable behaviour by leadership. Executives must be transparent about key decisions and trade-offs, set realistic expectations for workloads, and model healthy boundaries in their own calendars. When a senior leader leaves on time, takes vacation, or declines unsustainable demands, it signals that self-care isn’t a career risk but an expectation, she says.