Great Leaders Care

Name: Great Leaders Care
Price: 34.95 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781394389339

Developing Safe, Resilient and Successful Teams

Graeme Cowan (R U O K)

$34.95

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

Wiley
01 April 2026

Economics & Business; Business & management

Great leaders don't choose between results and wellbeing — they build both

Leadership is tough. When it comes to delivering success, you face higher demands, yet you receive less support. Meanwhile, your team members are stressed, tense and on the verge of burnout. Most leadership books focus solely on driving results, while ignoring a critical truth: you can't sustain high performance when you and your team are running on empty. That’s where Great Leaders Care is different — it delivers a practical, evidence-based framework for building teams that are both high-performing and resilient.

Graeme Cowan, Founding Director of R U OK?, draws on extensive interviews with successful CEOs plus his own personal journey with mental health, revealing what really matters in leadership. Inside, you’ll discover how caring cultures transform both people and business outcomes, including stronger engagement and performance, reduced liability and higher retention. When people feel genuinely cared for, productivity rises, turnover drops and teams become magnets for top talent.

Great Leaders Care shares the tools to:

Master the three pillars of caring leadership: self-care, team care and support for people who are struggling. Spot burnout early and use the VIP (Vitality, Intimacy, Prosperity) framework to stay steady, focused and resilient. Build psychological safety so your team members can speak up, share ideas and take the risks that lead to innovation. Put care into practice with daily habits and tools that lift workplace wellbeing and performance.

Leaders who care build teams that thrive. Great Leaders Care equips you with immediately actionable strategies to become the leader people actually want to work for — while delivering the results your organization demands.

‘Great Leaders Care is a compassionate, practical guide for managers on how to care for themselves and their teams in ways that reduce burnout and build psychological safety at work. Opening with the author’s deeply personal journey through severe depression and recovery, the book provides evidence-informed tools and stories from his work, and the celebrated R U OK? movement he helped to grow. Great Leaders Care offers a clear roadmap for anyone who wants to create workplaces where struggling is okay, speaking up is welcomed, and thriving is the result.' —Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School, author, Right Kind of Wrong and The Fearless Organization

By: Graeme Cowan (R U O K)
Imprint: Wiley
Country of Publication: Australia
ISBN: 9781394389339
ISBN 10: 1394389337
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 April 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction xi 1 Code red: From burnout to breakthrough 1 PILLAR 1 Self-care 17 2 Your moodometer 19 3 Mindset: Your psychological wellbeing 29 4 Vitality: Your physical wellbeing 45 5 Intimacy: Your emotional wellbeing 61 6 Prosperity: Career wellbeing 75 PILLAR 2 Crew care 89 7 Your crew's moodometer 93 8 Care about belonging 113 9 Leading with psychological safety 131 10 Growing together: Moving from amber to green 149 PILLAR 3 Red-zone care 165 11 Applying the ICARE framework 167 12 Building a WeCARE Culture 187 13 Complying with WHS laws 213 PILLAR 4 Code green 241 14 A different kind of awakening 243 15 The ripple effect of green zone leadership 255 16 The movement starts with you 267 Conclusion: The movement you're invited to join 279

Graeme Cowan is a former senior executive at Johnson & Johnson and Kearney and host of the #2 globally-ranked workplace mental health podcast. He helps busy leaders build teams that deliver results without burning out.

Reviews for Great Leaders Care: Developing Safe, Resilient and Successful Teams

'Leading teams isn't easy, but this practical playbook makes it simpler and actionable. Highly recommended.' —Mike Schneider, Managing Director, Bunnings ‘Great Leaders Care is a compassionate, practical guide for managers on how to care for themselves and their teams in ways that reduce burnout and build psychological safety at work. Opening with the author’s deeply personal journey through severe depression and recovery, the book provides evidence-informed tools and stories from his work, and the celebrated R U OK? movement he helped to grow. Great Leaders Care offers a clear roadmap for anyone who wants to create workplaces where struggling is okay, speaking up is welcomed, and thriving is the result.' —Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School, author, Right Kind of WrongandThe Fearless Organization ‘This book shows that caring leadership isn’t just morally right—it’s directly tied to superior organisational performance, creating workplaces where discretionary effort is the norm.’ —Steven Worrall, CEO Telstra InfraCo, and Chair, Corporate Mental Health Alliance