Leading Through Grief

My heart is heavy today. In fact, my team and I delayed the release of this newsletter because we found ourselves reeling from the most recent tragedy to befall our nation. 2020 brought with it a year of loss for the entire world and with the two recent mass shootings in the United States, the pain continues to spill over into 2021.

How does one cope? If you are like me, you are probably asking yourself “How can I help my team navigate the grief and loss?”

First, we have to allow ourselves to grieve.

Grief is a part of our human experience. Yet, we often avoid discussing these feelings in a professional setting. After all, allowing ourselves to feel sad could be viewed as weak, but this simply isn't true. It is through our vulnerability that we are able to meaningfully connect with one another.

How do we do this?

One way I allow myself to be in and move through grief is by relying on a power greater than my own. As a person of faith, when tragedy strikes, I turn to God for solace. There is a greater power. There is a game being played that is much longer and bigger than I understand. It does not answer why, but it does provide comfort.

Whatever your practice or belief, I encourage you to not compartmentalize. That is what being authentic means––bringing all of yourself to work. This is the most important thing I learned from my late mentor Clayton Christensen. He brought work to church and church to work. Draw upon your deeply-held beliefs and faith traditions and be real about them with your team. This will then give them permission to lean into and find comfort in their own anchoring beliefs.

Allow your team to grieve.

Just as you are experiencing loss and grief, so is your team. Expecting them to show up as though nothing has happened indirectly encourages them to suppress their very real and raw emotions. Over time, this practice can have damaging effects on their emotional stability. Inevitably this will show up in productivity or they will leave in favor of an organization that expresses more compassion for their employees.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), depressed workers miss 200 million days of work each year, costing employers $17 to $44 billion. Companies that put a premium on mental health help their employees to pursue emotional wellness and in doing so, improve productivity and stand to save millions.

Ideally, your motivation is altruistic – supporting the employees who are helping to build and sustain your company – rather than purely financial. Either way, encourage your team to seek the guidance of a mental health specialist, someone skilled in navigating the complex emotions experienced through grief and loss. This can be accomplished by allowing people time away for appointments, offering a list of resources and - depending on the size of your organization – by supporting their efforts through a company sponsored benefits package that includes mental health services. 

Often, the strongest leadership decision you will make is caring enough for your team to support their journey toward emotional healing and health.

How do you work through your grief? How do you support your team?

P.S. You may want to also read Grief Management: How To Support An Employee Coping With Grief by Sabina Nawaz

*****

If you enjoyed this article, here are two ways to stay in touch.

1. Sign Up for our Growth Through Disruption emails–––a weekly dose of personal disruption read by tens of thousands of people across the globe. No spam. Just a newsletter meant to help you grow faster. Sign up here.
2. Download this free resource on the seven guardrails of personal disruption. Visit whitneyjohnson.com/calm

*****

Whitney Johnson is the CEO of human capital consultancy WLJ Advisors, an Inc. 5000 2020 fastest-growing private company in America. One of the 50 leading business thinkers in the world as named by Thinkers50, Whitney and her team are experts at accelerating organizational growth by activating individuals and their teams. She is an award-winning author, world-class keynote speaker, frequent lecturer for Harvard Business School's Corporate Learning and an executive coach and advisor to CEOs. She is a popular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, has 1.8 million followers on LinkedIn, where she was selected as a Top Voice in 2020, and her course on Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has been viewed more than 1 million times. In 2017, she was selected from more than 16,000 candidates as a “Top 15 Coach” by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith.