Leading through Grief, Loss and Change

Leading through Grief, Loss and Change

Leadership during grief and change isn’t optional. Grief awareness and confidence is a core leadership skill that ensures teams are fully supported, engaged, and high-performing.

Overview:

Loss is universal, yet often unspoken, and even concealed, at work. Grief – from bereavement, divorce, or chronic illness – cannot be left at home, but comes to work within all of us. Nor can workplace losses such as restructuring, changing roles, failed projects, or the departure of valued colleagues.

The personal and financial costs of neglecting grief are high: from great people leaving their roles forever to presenteeism. In complete contrast, the benefits of an informed, compassionate and pragmatic response to loss can be tremendous, creating the conditions where leaders and employees can engage fully and contribute at their very best.

This session answers a question most organisations avoid: how do we lead well when people are grieving, navigating loss, or facing change and transition?

Session Outline:

1. Understanding Grief:

New definitions and fundamentals. Recognising different types of grief beyond bereavement, the cumulative impact of unresolved loss, and how grief impacts employees.

Brief pause for reflection

2. Grief Support at Work - The Cost and the Opportunity:

The business case for excellent grief support. The physiological impact of grief at work. How grief impacts productivity, morale, and retention.

3. Practical Strategies: Supporting Yourself and Others at Work

● Updating our grief toolkit: Uncovering some of the common myths and outdated habits that shape how we respond to grief, and replacing them with more effective, compassionate and practical approaches.Clear guidance on language and understanding to support colleagues effectively. Develop confidence in asking the right questions and how to respond.

● What to say and what not to say: Clear guidance on language and understanding to support colleagues effectively. Develop confidence in asking the right questions and how to respond.

● Creating a supportive culture through leadership: Practical ways leaders foster empathy, trust, and agility. How to maintain appropriate boundaries while supporting yourself and others through periods of loss or transition.

Attendees will not only better understand the impact of unresolved grief on themselves and  others. They will leave confident and equipped to lead through it, influence others positively and create a culture where grief and change are acknowledged and well managed.

Jess Goyder - Byography

Jess Goyder is a specialist in supporting people through grief, loss, and major transitions. She has over a decade’s experience coaching executives, teams, and creatives at organisations including Adobe, Ogilvy, and Deutsche Bank, helping leaders navigate complex situations with clarity, resilience, and empathy. Whether through bereavement, the breakdown of a significant relationship, change in title or other profound life changes, Jess helps people work through loss at a deep level, allowing them to move beyond coping and find clarity and genuine emotional completion.

Jess delivers workshops and talks, equipping leaders and top performers with practical tools to support themselves and others through grief and change. Her expertise is grounded in science, deep human insight and lived experience. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Psychodynamic Studies from the University of Oxford, specialising in attachment theory, relationship dynamics, and unconscious processes such as grief, depression, anxiety and trauma. She is licensed and certified in The Grief Recovery Method