This is the third in a series of articles exploring where grief might show up in coaching, and how we, as coaches, can stay present to what is unfolding for our clients.
The first piece explored grief more broadly, and the second through the lens of death and bereavement. This piece turns towards a different – but no less real – source of grief: what happens when an organisation, or a sector, experiences significant loss.
In June 2025, I hosted a series of three workshop-webinars for people and organisations affected by the recent mass restructuring and redundancies within global institutions and NGOs. One session was for those staying behind in an unfamiliar landscape, one for those who had left organisations and work they loved, and one for HR and leaders tasked with guiding others through the upheaval while also tending their own grief.
THREADS
Common threads emerged across the three sessions: numbness, fatigue, shame, shock, fear – and absence of a safe space to acknowledge what had been lost. In one webinar, a participant shared: “It feels like the building has collapsed, and we’re still expected to show up like nothing happened.” Another described their department as “a body with half its limbs amputated – and no one is even talking about it.”
These aren’t short-lived feelings of loss and grief affecting an individual. They’re systemic – and they have potentially long-lasting effects. Sense of identity, purpose, direction and belonging are all destabilised in the wake of massive organisational change.
This grief wasn’t confined to one institution or sector. Whether participants were in healthcare, climate nonprofits or aid organisations, the pattern was the same: grief went unspoken, losses went unacknowledged, and there was pressure to get on, to move on.
William Bridges (2004) reminds us that every transition begins with endings. But in organisational life, we rarely honour those endings. We rush forward to embrace the new – new structures, new roles, new projects – without first tending to what’s ending. In doing so, we leave grief – and its wisdom – behind like trapped energy in the organisation’s ecosystem. Unseen and blocked, it doesn’t go away, but festers.
For those working inside these organisations – whether departing or remaining – the grief is often accompanied by shame and confusion. ‘I should be grateful I still have a job’
Or, for those who had to leave:‘Why does this hurt so much? It wasn’t personal.’
But it is personal, because work is personal. Not just in how it affects our livelihoods, but in how it shapes our identity, our relationships, our sense of contribution and worth. For those leaving, there may be confusion, rage, disbelief, as well as a sudden loss of community, structure and rhythm. For those staying, there may be guilt, loneliness, overload and a deep sense of disorientation.
For leaders and HR teams, there may be decision fatigue, moral injury and little space to feel the impact of what they themselves have to implement – resulting in potential disconnection from those they serve.
Grief in organisational systems isn’t just about losing a job. It includes:
- Loss of trust and psychological safety
- Loss of purpose or faith in the organisation’s mission
- Loss of colleagues and communities served
- Loss of professional identity and self-worth
- Loss of institutional culture, memory and wisdom
- Loss of morale, motivation and meaning
When grief on this scale is ignored or bypassed, it’ll show up as resistance, burnout, silos, apathy, disengagement, conflict. Sometimes the most committed people – those with vocational or service-oriented careers – are the most distraught. Not because they’re unable to adapt but because what they gave themselves to for so long is now nowhere to be found.
In the absence of overt rituals, acknowledgments or communal pauses, whether staying behind or leaving, people may feel their grief isn’t valid. And yet small rituals can matter – farewell circles, symbolic gestures, shared storytelling or even a collective pause – all of these can bring dignity and coherence to what is ending.
Without time and space to grieve, people may leave, carry on numbly, or collapse in burnout. Others may push on, trying to hold the system together – until the whole thing collapses.
Thomas Hübl (2020), writing on collective trauma, describes how unresolved pain in systems becomes embedded in the field – transmitted unconsciously, shaping behaviours and relationships. I see this in organisations where waves of restructuring have occurred with little attention to grief. The grief and trauma go underground, and the symptoms become cultural, impacting the organisation’s essence into the future.
So where might coaching have a contribution to make?
Recognise grief
First, we must recognise that organisational grief may not look like sadness. It might show up as flatness, cynicism, perfectionism, anger, withdrawal, over-functioning or even hyper-optimism. All may be signs that something of value has been lost.
Then, we can invite conversation – going gently, thinking systemically.
- What’s been lost – for you? For others?
- What do you feel cannot be named or expressed?
- What are you carrying that isn’t yours to carry?
- What needs to be witnessed, named and mourned – before something new can emerge?
These aren’t diagnostic tools – they’re invitations. In Griefwise coaching, questions surface the unseen patterns in systems and people. Often, what the client is holding may reflect what the wider organisation is suppressing.
Grief is rarely the client’s presenting issue, but it’s often present. And when it is, our job is not to fix it, or reframe it too quickly as we’re opening up something new. Instead, we can witness, make room for the emotions, validate the losses and what hurts. And find ways to honour what is ending and what is able to continue.
We must also attend to our own edges – coaching others’ grief at this scale can stir up our own stories. As ever, coaching supervision isn’t a luxury here: it’s a necessity.
As coaches, we can also work with leaders and teams to name collective losses, to co-create moments of rituals of acknowledgment, and to rebuild trust in small, humane ways.
Organisational grief does not need to be solved – but it benefits from being tended. New things will emerge in time if we dare to turn towards the pain. And in so doing, we rekindle the deeper truths that are at the heart of good leadership and life: that we’re shaped both by what we love, and by what we lose. That our systems, like our bodies, need time to rest, integrate and heal.
Perhaps, then, organisational grief is not just a sign of pain, but a sign of love – for what once was, and for what still matters. This is Griefwise leadership and coaching – for individuals, for cultures, and for systems.
Next issue: What not to say: Grief literacy for coaches
References
Bridges, W. (2004). Transitions: Making sense of life’s changes.Balance Press.
Hübl, T. (2020). Healing collective trauma: A process for integrating our intergenerational and cultural wounds. Sounds True.
About the author
Emma Pearson is an executive and systemic team coach, OD consultant and business psychologist. She supports leaders and teams in navigating complexity, strengthening connections and fostering cultures where both people and organisations can thrive. Loss has shaped her as much as her work. In the space of a few years, she lost one of her best friends, her youngest brother, her husband, and her teenage daughter. That depth of grief has sharpened her awareness of life’s impermanence, the urgency of living fully, and the kind of leadership we need in these times – one that is courageous, deeply human, and awake to what truly matters.
First published in Coaching at Work, 1st September 2025.
