As my youngest daughter wraps up Grade 8, I find myself at the edge of an emotional threshold — the same kind we often encounter in leadership: when change calls us to pause, realign, and lead with heart.

This month marks the end of an era in our family: the final elementary school sports tournament, the last-minute grad dress fittings, the bittersweet moments of watching my daughter grow into the young woman I’ve been raising her to be — strong, independent, kind, and resilient.

It’s a deeply personal transition, but one that mirrors the very journey I often coach leaders through. Whether in parenting or leadership, growth is not just about milestones — it’s about letting go of one chapter to step into the unknown of the next.

And that next chapter? It often begins with grief.

Yes — grief. Even in leadership.

For my entire adult life, I have been a Type A personality. I am driven, ambitious, and goal-oriented. If you are like me, you know the pros around this way of being is that you tend to achieve.

But the downside of wiring yourself to lead and live like this is there is little peace in your mind. You are always thinking, strategizing, and planning. Eventually, this can lead to a feeling of never being in the moment because your brain is always swirling around. And before you know it, this becomes the way our lives are conducted as days roll into years and even though we are achieving, we are really not fully living.

How does Mindfulness do all of this?

After my husband Jeff died in 2019, I felt such raw and agonizing grief. I grieved for my kids who were 8 and 10 years old when their Dad died after a 2-year battle with esophageal cancer. I grieved for myself. And, I grieved for Jeff because he didn’t get the chance to live out the life he so desperately wanted, to grow old with me and watch our daughters at the different stages of their lives.

Now that I have had the experience of intimately knowing grief, I don’t believe it is something we can move through. There is no end destination to get to here. Grief does not end. But, it changes.