Employees are the central resource fo r achieving company goals. Supporting them is an important task for executives, and determines whether employees are able to show high quality performance in the long term. In business reality, however, managers too often fail to recognize health promotion as a leadership task and accordingly fail to put it — with the support of the company’s health protection system — into action. The results of empirical studies show that inadequate leadership behaviour has negative effects on motivation, health and work-attendance, and demonstrate how important it is that leaders be aware of the needs of the employee and their effects on health. This article discusses aspects of health-promoting and employee-oriented leadership behaviour. It shows how to recognize negative leadership attitudes and how to act in a manner which has positive effects on health. The example “Delegating new tasks to employees” demonstrates how to anticipate and prevent negative mental stress in corporate reality.
