Grief is an unpopular topic, but a necessary one. We’re uncomfortable with it. And yet, it’s all around us in the news, our communities, at work, in our homes and families. Whether we name it or not, grief is present for so many of us.

Some of the senior leaders I work with feel frustrated that their teams aren’t “getting” the new strategy, the org redesign, or the day-to-day changes that come with transformation. But when they begin to understand that these shifts represent a kind of loss, loss of what was familiar, loss of confidence, loss of identity, something clicks.

It becomes clear: what people are feeling isn’t resistance, it’s grief.

When leaders can sit with that, acknowledge the emotional weight of change, and support people through it rather than pushing forward at all costs, it transforms how they lead.

Grief is everywhere. It’s in global uncertainty. It’s in the people we’ve lost, whether they’ve passed on or simply changed. It’s in the way things were, versus how they are now.

Grief doesn’t follow a straight line. It doesn’t always end. As someone once told me, “We never stop grieving. We just learn to live with the loss.”

I often come back to this quote from Jamie Anderson:

“Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.”

Grief is not something to be fixed. It asks us to sit with discomfort and let it move through us. When we do, it has the power to unite rather than divide. To soften rather than harden. To bring us closer to what matters.

Suppressing grief – our own or others’ – feeds disconnection. But honoring it can be healing for individuals and the collective. Something in the air of the world tells me we need that healing.

Where might grief be asking to be seen – in yourself, your team, or the world around you?