Here's a question I can't stop asking leaders: if someone on your team lost a loved one tomorrow, or came to you with a terminal diagnosis, do you actually know what would happen next? Not what the handbook says. What would actually happen.
Most of the time, the honest answer is: it depends on who is in the room that day and what position they hold.
These moments get decided in real time, shaped by whoever's closest to the pain, without the distance to weigh what's right against what's sustainable for the business. Legal counsel, understandably cautious, often counsels silence or rigidity due to fear of precedent or exposure. And that fear quietly overrides what a lot of us know, in our gut, is right.
So the worst thing that can happen isn't having no policy. It's building one in the middle of someone's worst week, decided through passion and pain, without a lens for what's right and what's sustainable.
Where has our moral compass gone, and what upgrade does it need?
Ask yourself:
What if someone lost a loved one?
What if someone became terminally ill?
Can you sleep at night with how things are currently structured?
How do your practices support your mission and values?
Do this with your team. Work the problem, and see how it would actually play out. My best advice: run some scenario planning and test what you do, and don't, have in place before you need it.
If you lead people in Arizona and want to dive into this more in person — I'm hosting an AZ people leader lunch on September 29. Email me for an invite.
Anita Grantham
[email protected]
602.722.6270