The validated system for leader wellbeing
Help your leaders feel, be and stay their best.
The Global Leadership Wellbeing System (GLWS)® measures, explains and improves leader wellbeing to protect performance, strengthen capability and reduce burnout risks before they cost you your best people.
Built on 10+ years of research with 10,000+ leaders.
The challenge
Leader wellbeing has become one of the most important, least understood drivers of organisational success.
Leaders today face more complexity, responsibility and pressure than ever – while organisations grapple with rising burnout, psychosocial risk and growing expectations for sustainable high performance and improved productivity.
1 in 4 leaders report mentally struggling at work – a figure rising by an average of 27% every year since 2020.
GLWS, 2026
Most organisations are seeing the symptoms not the causes. Without that, it’s hard to know where the risks are, what to change, or where support will be effective.
Leader wellbeing is the performance variable most organisations don’t measure.
That’s why GLWS exists.
A different way to understand wellbeing
The word “wellbeing” is not our friend
Forever tangled with yoga, mindfulness, gym memberships, resilience workshops and other initiatives that can sometimes feel like ways of asking for more, dressed up as care. No wonder the word has an image problem.
But all that changes when wellbeing is understood as a leader capability, an organisational performance driver and a risk reduction lever – one that sits upstream of engagement, performance and productivity. Understand “wellbeing” in this way, especially in your leaders, and a raft of positive outcomes follow downstream.
If wellbeing is still being misunderstood or wrongly positioned it’s a problem – because if you can’t explain it clearly, you can’t protect or improve it.
So what does wellbeing actually mean? Audrey McGibbon, the psychologist who built GLWS, puts it simply:
Wellbeing is a delicate balancing act between all the demands and challenges we experience in our lives and work, and all the protective and energising resources we have available to draw upon to help us thrive at any given time.
Audrey McGibbon, CEO of Eek & Sense and author of the GLWS
When demands consistently outweigh resources, wellbeing suffers. When people have the resources to meet what's asked of them, they thrive.
Drawn from over a decade of research and 10,000+ leaders assessed, this thinking is at the foundation of our Ten Universal Truths about wellbeing – the clearest, most scientifically sound explanation of wellbeing we know.
Hear from the psychologist who built GLWS®
Audrey McGibbon has spent over 35 years equipping professionals, executives and senior leaders to thrive – work that has given her two things at once: a front-row view of what leaders experience, and a deep understanding of how organisational systems, culture and work processes function. GLWS was built to bring those two sides together – as a tool for the individual and the organisation, at once.
In this short video, Audrey explains why wellbeing is more complex than any one factor alone, why that complexity is real, and crucially why it needs to be measurable.
Want more insight? Download our guide to explaining wellbeing science to executives or check out the Resources page.
Measure, understand and act on wellbeing with the GLWS® System
Having a clear definition is just the start. GLWS turns theory into practice – precise measurement, tracking and improvement at the individual, team and organisational level.
Science at its core
At its heart is the GLWS Wellbeing Framework – a validated, scientific model of wellbeing that defines the factors enabling people to thrive, both professionally and personally.
The Framework is the research basis for the GLWS System, which organisations use to measure the individual, role, team, organisational and lifestyle factors that shape satisfaction, positive mental health, burnout and overall wellbeing.
Independently validated
In 2023, independent research by the University of Melbourne, involving 6,500 professionals, leaders, executives and knowledge workers validated the GLWS, confirming that the six GLWS dimensions determine overall wellbeing, happiness and satisfaction in life and work, with highly significant links to burnount.
A unique measure
The GLWS is both holistic and multi-dimensional, assessing wellbeing across individual, work, organisational, environmental and outside-of-work contexts, providing the full picture, not a narrow slice.
That’s what lets it work on two levels at once: individuals act on what they can control, in a way that leaves them feeling resourced rather than overwhelmed; while simultaneously surfacing the issues that require a team, leadership or organisational response with clear systemic evidence to inform policy, wellbeing strategy and investment.
Why leader wellbeing is now business critical
Leader wellbeing is often treated as a soft people issue. The evidence says it's one of the hardest-edged business metrics there is.
Leaders are under unprecedented pressure
The role has fundamentally changed. Leaders at every level are required to continually adapt to complex, shifting demands while delivering bigger, more ambitious and frequently competing outcomes, in a world more volatile and uncertain than ever.
Overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout are rising; satisfaction and fulfilment are falling.
And their wellbeing isn't just an outcome - it's a driver
A leader’s wellbeing shapes the wellbeing and performance of everyone they lead. That makes it as important to measure as employee engagement – arguably more so, because it sits upstream of engagement, performance and productivity alike. When it slips, the ripple through their teams and organisation is real, and ultimately unsustainable. Handled well, the reverse is true: it becomes one of the most underused strategic advantages in business.
Conservatively, every $1 invested in mental health at work returns around $4 through improved productivity and reduced compensation claims*.
And now, it's a duty of care
Mental health and psychosocial hazards have become the single largest source of complaints to Fair Work Australia. Leaders are now responsible for protecting their people from psychological harm. But here’s the catch: a leader who is themselves depleted – subject to the same (or worse) pressures – can’t carry that duty for anyone else.
Measuring and supporting leaders’ own wellbeing isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the first step, without which any psychosocial risk strategy will be compromised.
Leader wellbeing is the cornerstone of capability
To meet duty of care obligations and create lasting change, organisations must start by assessing and supporting leaders’ wellbeing. It’s the first step and the foundation for sustainable performance, compliance, and a healthier workplace.
Wellbeing will be the new disruptor. The inability to respond effectively to burnout, wellbeing and mental health will become this generation of leaders’ greatest challenge. Or their greatest opportunity.
Audrey McGibbon, CEO of Eek & Sense and author of the GLWS
From compliance to competitive advantage
Organisations that prioritise leaders’ psychological safety and wellbeing report 20% higher engagement and 27% lower staff turnover – alongside significantly stronger financial performance. And the cost of doing nothing? 50% of workers are now at risk of burnout.
*See The Strategic Advantage page for a full list of sources
Trusted by organisations who take this seriously
The GLWS is relied on where the pressure on leaders runs highest – from federal government, regulators and defence through to global enterprise and professional services.
The numbers behind the trust
10,000+
Leaders supported to improve their wellbeing
1:1 to 1K
From 1:1 coaching to programs with 1,000+ participants, proven at every scale
91%
Of leaders recommend GLWS to their peers*
500+
Accredited psychologists, coaches and consultants using GLWS worldwide
Independently validated
By the University of Melbourne (2023)
89%
Make at least one positive change to improve their wellbeing after completing the GLWS*
*Impact and evalation results from a program involving 120 senior leaders in banking and financial services sector. See the Success Stories page for full results.
Ready to help your leaders feel, be and stay their best?
See exactly how the GLWS System measures what matters, diagnoses what needs to change, and helps your leaders, and the organisation around them, to thrive.
Testimonials
