How CEOs Shape Health: The Power of Transparency, Accessibility, and Courage

When we talk about population health, we usually think of physicians, insurers, hospitals, or public policy. Yet for employed adults, few forces influence health more directly than the CEO.

Chief executives design the environments in which millions of people spend most of their waking hours. Those environments can reduce stress or quietly intensify Chronic stress remains one of the most powerful predictors of poor physical and mental health. The 2024 Headspace Workforce State of Mind annual survey, along with many other studies, firmly anchors population health in the CEOs words and actions.

In this and future editions, I will explore leadership traits that either elevate or undermine employee health. This essay focuses on three that matter enormously: transparency, accessibility, and fearlessness.

I came to appreciate their importance during my years leading Pitney Bowes, especially during periods of significant turbulence. Markets shifted. Technology disrupted assumptions. National crises shook confidence. I could not control those forces. I could control how we addressed them.

Transparency: Eliminating the Anxiety of the Unknown

Uncertainty breeds stress. When information is scarce, rumor expands to fill the void.

As CEO, I could not stabilize financial markets or prevent geopolitical shocks. But I could ensure that employees understood what we knew, what we didn’t know, and what we were doing in response.

Three episodes during my tenure required unusual clarity.

The Internet Postage Panic

In the late 1990s, investors became convinced that Internet postage would quickly make postage meters obsolete. Two venture-backed startups, without revenue, raised enormous capital and saw their valuations soar. Our stock price dropped sharply amid the speculation.

Rather than dismiss these fears, I addressed them directly. I asked a product leader to demonstrate to our Board how long it took to download and print a single stamp: nearly two minutes. The demonstration was simple but powerful. The technology was real, but the threat was not immediate.  I reminded every stakeholder of the quote often attributed to Bill Gates: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”

By confronting the issue openly and factually, we reduced internal anxiety. Over time, the hysteria faded. Our business remained strong.

9/11 and the Anthrax Crisis

In 2001, we lost four colleagues in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Soon after, anthrax was discovered in the U.S. House mailroom that we operated. Fear was understandable and widespread.

My response was to create a brief, weekly voicemail message to all employees. I called it Power Talk. Each message explained what we understood about events, how we were responding, and where uncertainties remained. I continued this practice until my retirement.

At the same time, our CFO held regular, candid briefings with senior leaders to explain financial realities and operating decisions. Transparency did not eliminate risk, but it significantly reduced speculation and rumor.

Research confirms this dynamic. Studies show that financial transparency reduces job-related stress. Employees can absorb difficult information; what undermines morale is ambiguity.

What Leaders Can Do

• Institutionalize recurring, concise business updates.
• Explain reasoning, not just outcomes.
• Clarify what is known, what is unknown, and what remains fluid.

Accessibility: Leadership as Presence

Transparency addresses information gaps. Accessibility improves health and wellbeing be reducing emotional distance.

Accessibility is not about optics or casual branding. It is about making leadership visible, reachable, and human.

At Pitney Bowes, we inherited traditions that encouraged executive presence. Senior leaders visited facilities worldwide and engaged in open dialogue sessions called Jobholder Meetings. Questions were welcomed, not filtered.

I expanded these efforts by holding skip-level meetings, smaller group discussions, and extended Q&A sessions. I responded personally to employee messages. Over time, I conducted more than 150 one-on-one meetings annually with employees who did not report to me.

Accessibility also meant reducing physical and symbolic barriers. I commuted by train, drove myself to meetings, and removed visible security barriers at headquarters. In many of our facilities, I took conference tables and personal printers out of indivcidual offices and required executives to walk to conference rooms and multi-functional printers. They would invariably end up talking with direct reports and other front line employees. These actions signaled that hierarchy would not prevent engagement.

This presence had two important effects. It surfaced insights no performance dashboard could reveal.

And Iit humanized leadership during difficult transitions, including factory closures. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was having breakfast with factory employees discussing the eventual closure of their plant before I was summoned back to Headquarters to manage our response to the events of that tragic day. That setting was difficult, but it reinforced trust that endured long after.

What Leaders Can Do

• Schedule consistent skip-level conversations.
• Protect unscripted Q&A time.
• View accessibility as listening, not broadcasting.

Fearlessness: Creating Agency in Turbulent Times

Communicating agency instead of victimhood

Fear can quietly become the organizing principle of an organization. When that happens, initiative declines and stress intensifies.

Early in my tenure, the United States Postal Service canceled a contract that generated significant income for us. Suing our chief regulator and major customer seemed risky. Many feared retaliation.

After careful deliberation, we proceeded. A communications advisor helped us articulate a critical message:

“We have the technologies, financial strength, customer loyalty, and talent to thrive, regardless of our relationship with the Postal Service.”

That statement did more than reassure investors. It reframed how we saw ourselves. We shifted from worrying about external leverage to recognizing our internal strengths.

Following 9/11 and the anthrax incidents, I asked our leadership team a consistent question:

“What opportunities might emerge from these events?”

Fearlessness does not deny danger. It insists on agency.

Managing Results Without Reinforcing Helplessness

How CEOs explain setbacks have lasting consequences.

When we missed earnings guidance following the travel disruptions of 2001, I acknowledged the external shock. But I emphasized that adaptation was within our control and we returned to performance.

Years earlier, rising interest rates threatened one of our divisions. Instead of seeking relief, we sold assets whose values had risen because of the same economic forces driving rates upward. We exceeded expectations.

Leaders who attribute outcomes solely to external conditions risk teaching employees that effort no longer matters.

Reducing “Emergency Culture”

Frequent declarations of crisis create chronic stress. While true emergencies occur, not every disruption deserves that label.

When we restructured parts of the company, I described those actions as preventive measures designed to avoid more severe consequences later. The message was deliberate: we were acting to stay strong, not reacting to collapse.

Leaders must resist language that dramatizes change unnecessarily. Long-term perspective is stabilizing. As often observed, organizations overestimate short-term change and underestimate long-term transformation. The long game matters.

Agency consistently outperforms victimhood.

Leadership Lessons for Today

When Franklin D. Roosevelt assumed office during the Great Depression, he faced a nation gripped by fear. Through direct communication, visible presence, and steady optimism, he reshaped public psychology. Leaders need not share his politics to recognize the effectiveness of that approach.

Today’s environment amplifies anxiety through media and digital platforms. In such a climate, CEOs must be even more intentional about projecting clarity, steadiness, and confidence.

A Practical Leadership Reflection

This quarter, consider asking yourself:

• Where might my silence be increasing uncertainty?
• Which groups in my organization rarely hear from me directly?
• When performance falters, do my messages reinforce resilience, resignation, or fear?

Leadership behavior is not a peripheral influence on health. It is central to it.

Closing Thought

Executives often underestimate how profoundly their daily choices shape stress levels inside their organizations. Transparency, accessibility, and courage are not soft traits. They are operational tools that influence performance, resilience, and well-being.

If you are leading in uncertain times and want to strengthen both organizational performance and employee health, I welcome the conversation.

You can reach me at mikeceo@moveflux.com.