Leading Through Loss: What Grieving Employees Need with Mindy Corporon
What happens when grief walks into work with us, but no one knows what to say?After Mindy Corporon’s father and 14-year-old son were murdered in a 2014 hate crime, she found herself carrying two realities at once. She was grieving an unimaginable loss while also leading a company, supporting employees, serving clients, and raising her younger son.Amy and Mindy explore what those experiences taught her about grief leadership and the responsibility leaders have when loss enters the workplace. Mindy introduces the ABLE Conversation, a practical framework built around four actions: ask, befriend, listen, and encourage. Rather than expecting someone to return from bereavement leave ready to perform as before, she invites leaders to ask a more human question: What is your capacity today?Their conversation also explores how grief can appear through overworking, mistakes, brain fog, and changing family milestones, along with the role Mindy’s faith has played in helping her continue after profound loss.Grief does not ask leaders to become therapists. It asks them to notice.Sometimes leadership begins with having enough courage to acknowledge what happened, stay present, and remind another human being that they do not have to become invisible in their pain.Moments That Create Momentum:Silence Can Add to the Pain – Understand why acknowledging someone’s loss can matter even when a leader does not know exactly what to say.Ask About Capacity, Not Just Wellbeing – Learn how asking what someone can manage today creates a more useful conversation than expecting an all-or-nothing return.Grief Can Look Like Overworking – Recognize how longer hours, mistakes, brain fog, and disrupted routines may signal that someone is struggling after loss.Remember Who Is Missing – Consider how holidays, birthdays, and family milestones can reactivate grief long after the initial bereavement period has ended.Faith Does Not Require an Explanation – See how Mindy continues choosing faith, service, and kindness without believing tragedy had to happen for a reason.About the Guest:Mindy Corporon is the founder of Grief Leadership, the emerging discipline at the intersection of grief and leadership, and author of Grief Leadership and Healing a Shattered Soul. A CEO, speaker, and entrepreneur, Mindy’s work was shaped by profound personal loss when her father and fourteen-year-old son were murdered in a 2014 hate crime. She transformed grief into action, developing practical approaches that help leaders recognize and respond to loss while sustaining humanity, culture, trust, and organizational performance. Through her writing, speaking, and leadership, Mindy equips organizations to put Grief Leadership into practice through ABLE Conversations: Ask, Befriend, Listen, Encourage.https://www.youtube.com/@mindycorporon1170https://www.facebook.com/mindy.corporonInstagram: @mindycorporonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mindycorporon/Mindy’s Book - Grief Leadership - https://link.amazon/B0dpgJV2eAbout Amy:Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work.She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality.Connect with Amy:https://createmagicatwork.net/https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-workhttps://www.facebook.com/112951637095427https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatworkhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGgThanks for listening!Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!Subscribe to the podcastIf you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.Leave us an Apple Podcasts reviewRatings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
