For People Leaders
Psychosocial safety & trauma-informed leadership.
Whether you're building leadership capability to prevent psychological harm at work, supporting managers to meet WHS psychosocial safety or Positive Duty obligations, or closing the gap between policy and practice — this program equips managers with the understanding and practical skills to act early, safely, and effectively.
Book a strategic consultationCulture Plus method
Behaviour-first. Evidence-based. Built to last.
Moving beyond policy to build leaders who prevent psychosocial harm
Most leaders have never been taught how to recognise when a management interaction causes psychological harm.
People leaders shape the psychological conditions of work. The way they communicate expectations, respond to distress, manage performance, and handle conflict determines whether employees feel safe, supported, and able to function effectively — or whether those interactions become sources of harm.
The model Work Health and Safety Regulations require employers to identify, assess, and control psychosocial hazards — identifying poor manager support as one of seventeen regulated psychosocial hazards. In practice, manager behaviour is now a regulated risk control. Neither WHS obligations nor Positive Duty are satisfied by a wellbeing policy and an EAP contract.
Where leadership training exists, it often focuses on stress management or resilience rather than on the leadership behaviours that create or compound psychosocial risk. Here are some honest reflections from organisations facing this challenge:
"Our leaders want to do the right thing — but they don't know what to say when someone is clearly struggling."
"We're concerned that there is a capability gap in how we manage performance, with our leaders sometimes lacking insight into how their practices might be causing or amplifying harm."
"We need real leadership development, not compliance training that stops at awareness and doesn't build capability."
Programme snapshot
What you need to know at a glance.
For senior leaders managing organisation-wide psychosocial risk, Culture Plus offers tailored executive and board-level programmes: Respect at Work for Executives & Boards.
People leaders, managers, supervisors, and team leaders responsible for managing teams, workplace behaviour, and psychosocial risk.
Endorsed capability partner
Trusted by Australia's peak HR body.
Culture Plus Consulting is proud to design and deliver flagship DEI programmes for the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) — Australia's peak HR professional body — supporting HR leaders and practitioners to build capability for inclusive leadership and organisational change.
Connect with us to explore how evidence-based DEI training can help your organisation build capability, strengthen culture, and deliver meaningful, measurable change.
What this training covers
What this Psychosocial Safety & Trauma-Informed Leadership Training covers.
Leaders often support their team's wellbeing in principle — but need clear guidance on what to do when psychological risk is present. This training focuses on practical behaviours leaders can start using right away. Participants gain hands-on skills and practise them in realistic leadership scenarios, including difficult feedback conversations, performance management under pressure, and responding safely to distress.
What changes after this training
Real shifts that matter.
Organisations strengthen their ability to demonstrate proactive prevention, trauma-informed response, and leadership capability aligned with psychosocial safety obligations and Positive Duty requirements. Leaders identify and address psychosocial risks sooner — reducing escalation into formal complaints, psychological injury claims, absenteeism, turnover, and regulatory scrutiny. SafeWork NSW issued over 500 psychosocial-related notices across 2024 and 2025 — targeting not the absence of policy, but the absence of genuine operational capability.
Our methodology
The Practical Capability Model
Every Culture Plus programme is built on the same evidence-based methodology. Hover any step for detail:
Your facilitator
CEO, Author and Principal Consultant
Felicity Menzies
Every Culture Plus engagement is delivered with behavioural rigour and practical relevance by Felicity Menzies — organisational psychologist, author, and specialist facilitator.
- Role
- Founder, Culture Plus Consulting
- Qualification
- Bachelor of Commerce; Bachelor of Arts (Psych) — University Medallist; Fellow, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand
- Experience
- 15+ years advising leading global and Australian private and government organisations; former senior executive in financial services and consulting
- Discipline
- Organisational psychology, behavioural science & trauma-informed practice
- Published
- A World of Difference (2016); contributor to leading business and HR publications globally
- Recognition
- LinkedIn Top Voice; commendation in NSW Parliament
From the book
Culture is the sum of behaviours leaders permit, model, and reward.A World of Difference — Felicity Menzies →
Free guide
Need to deliver psychosocial safety training that drives real behaviour change?
This guide outlines the essential conditions for effective training that builds lasting leadership capability — moving beyond awareness to practical skills that prevent harm and create psychologically safer workplaces.
Download the guideFrequently asked questions
Questions about psychosocial safety and trauma-informed leadership training.
If you have a question we haven't covered, write to us — a real human responds within one working day.
No. Trauma-informed leadership does not require managers to become counsellors or therapists. It equips leaders to understand how stress and trauma affect workplace behaviour, avoid compounding harm, respond appropriately, and know when to escalate or refer.
Selected work
While you're here
Related services
Psychosocial Safety Advisory
Identify, assess and control psychosocial hazards in line with WHS regulator expectations.
Psychosocial Safety Advisory →Respect at Work for Managers
Practical capability for the layer that makes or breaks a respectful culture.
Respect at Work for Managers →High-Performing Teams
Diagnose and build the conditions for trust, candour and sustained team performance.
High-Performing Teams →Further reading
From the journal
How Leaders Can Foster Psychological Safety in Their Teams
Leader Toolkit: Facilitating Discussions on Workplace Respect and Safety
Leadership Strategies for Addressing Workplace Stressors
Build leadership capability that prevents psychosocial harm
This isn't about ticking boxes.
It's about building the leadership capability the current moment demands: leaders who understand how work and management practices can create harm — and who know how to lead in ways that prevent it.
Discuss your leadership team's needs