Since I was a trainee and once I qualified as a Counselling Psychologist, I have worked across several NHS Trusts and I’ve seen an uncomfortable pattern:
The NHS speaks constantly about values, compassion and caring — yet far too often fails to embody these principles where they matter most: in how people are treated.
The reality is stark.
Front-line staff give everything. They stay late, hold impossible caseloads, absorb emotional trauma because they genuinely care about patients.
And in return?
They’re too often met with detachment, language over action, and leadership hiding behind slides, slogans, ‘initiatives’ and ‘aspirations’.
No wonder so many feel betrayed.
Cynicism and burnout are not emotional weaknesses — they’re natural consequences of being repeatedly let down by those with power.
The typical managerial response?
- More messaging
- More “values” campaigns
- More yoga and wellbeing suggestions — attempting perhaps to soothe rather than solve, achieving neither.
Meanwhile, an uncomfortable truth goes unspoken:
Many NHS leaders are not leading.
They are managing — preserving the system, not transforming it.
We have KPIs for almost everything — except the things that matter most:
- Do staff trust their leaders?
- Is there psychological safety?
- Are people treated with dignity and humanity?
- Do leaders truly care — or just say they do?
We don’t measure these — perhaps because the answers would be uncomfortable.
And this is the tragedy:
A genuinely caring, people-first approach is within reach.
The blueprint exists.
It’s called Truly Human Leadership — a lived model with profound impact.
Yet Trusts default to familiar habits:
Policy first.
People second, at best.
Language over action.
‘Safety’ over courage.
If you are a leader in the NHS and this makes you uncomfortable, good.
Discomfort is the beginning of change.
The Truly Human Leadership movement is grounded in a radical yet simple measure:
“We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people.”
Imagine if NHS leadership were held to that standard — measuring trust, dignity and psychological safety as rigorously as targets and budgets.
Imagine leaders accountable for the emotional climate they create.
This future is not naïve.
It’s necessary.
I encourage you to watch the interview below and sit with what it evokes.
Reading Everybody Matters in 2016 changed how I see leadership — it may do the same for you. It doesn’t matter whether you are in a Leadership position or not, I would still encourage you to watch this and appreciate what true leadership, that puts people first, looks like.
This could literally change the world.
Diomidis Psomas 