Supportive Leadership: Navigating Grief in the Workplace
Choose a 60-minute Awareness Session or a 90-minute Interactive Workshop, designed to help managers support bereaved employees with confidence, clarity and compassion.
This course is particularly relevant where:
Managers are noticing changes in concentration, performance, attendance or work capacity following a bereavement and are unsure how best to respond
Leaders need to balance compassion for an individual with workload, fairness and the needs of the wider team
Managers lack confidence around return-to-work conversations, adjustments and changing needs over time
Leaders are unsure how to navigate difficult conversations, changing team dynamics or fears about saying the wrong thing
Managers need greater clarity about where their role begins and ends, including when to involve HR, Occupational Health, EAP or other support
What to Expect from This Course
Managers are often expected to support colleagues through bereavement while also balancing the needs of the wider team, organisational responsibilities and their own uncertainty about what to say or do.
Supportive Leadership: Navigating Grief in the Workplace equips managers and team leaders with greater confidence to approach grief-related conversations with compassion, clarity and appropriate boundaries.
Participants explore how grief can affect individuals, working relationships, communication and team dynamics, as well as some of the practical challenges managers may encounter when supporting someone before, during and after their return to work.
The course considers what supportive leadership can look like in practice, including listening without feeling responsible for fixing grief, using thoughtful language, responding flexibly to individual needs and recognising when other workplace support may need to be involved.
Duration:
60-minute Awareness Session
90-minute Interactive Workshop, including additional discussion, workplace scenarios and Q&A
Delivery: Live facilitated, in person or online
Audience: Managers, team leaders and others with responsibility for supporting staff
What participants have said
“Clearer understanding of what support looks like from a manager.”
“Knowing what to say and when to involve HR or EAP.”
“Being more confident to hold space and listen without fixing.”
Read more feedback from organisations and participants on our Testimonials page.
Common leadership challenges explored
Managers may feel:
Unsure how to respond when grief affects someone’s work
Torn between compassion and the needs of the wider team
Worried about saying the wrong thing or overstepping
Unclear about return-to-work support and changing needs
Unsure when to involve HR, Occupational Health, EAP or other support
After this session, participants should be better able to:
Recognise how grief may affect behaviour, capacity and work
Approach difficult conversations with greater confidence
Support a return to work with appropriate flexibility
Consider the impact on the wider team and workload
Understand their role, boundaries and when to involve others
Grief doesn’t clock out when we clock in. It impacts employees, teams and businesses. This short video offers a glimpse into Supportive Leadership, a training course designed to equip managers with the confidence and practical strategies to navigate grief in the workplace with empathy, care and procedural/ legal awareness.
Interested in bringing Supportive Leadership to your organisation?
Managers are often expected to support bereaved employees while also balancing workload, team needs and organisational responsibilities.
Supportive Leadership: Navigating Grief in the Workplace is designed to build confidence around these situations and can be tailored to your managers, team leaders and workplace setting.
The course is available as a 60-minute Awareness Session or a 90-minute Interactive Workshop, delivered live in person or online.
If you are unsure which option would be most appropriate, you do not need to decide before getting in touch. Use the form below to tell me a little about your organisation and what you are looking for.
Enquire about Supportive Leadership
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Please note: Supportive Leadership is workplace grief awareness training for managers and team leaders. It is designed to build confidence around compassionate conversations, workplace support and appropriate boundaries. It does not provide counselling, therapy or clinical training.
See all training options
Explore our Workplace Grief Awareness Training Series to compare courses for different roles, teams and workplace needs.
Why does grief awareness matter at work?
Explore Why Grief Awareness Training Matters to understand the impact grief can have on people, teams and organisations.
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Visit our Workplace Suicide Postvention guidance for practical information, or explore The Ripple Effect: Managing the Impact of Suicide in the Workplace training.