When Your Career Breaks Your Heart: The ...

This week, Traci talks with Laverne McKinnon, MCC, about professional grief. That's the loss we feel when a job, promotion, project, or career identity we cared about is suddenly gone, and it may be what's behind the burnout, low morale, and missing motivation so many HR leaders are seeing right now.

Laverne is a career strategist and grief recovery specialist who works with ambitious professionals through career pivots, new leadership roles, and career disruptions. She's a former senior executive at CBS and Epix, executive produced Netflix's Girlboss, teaches at Northwestern University, and mentors in the CAPE Leadership Fellowship Program. Her upcoming book, Showstopper, reframes professional setbacks as plot twists instead of endings.

What they talked about:

• Why the passion you can't get back might be grief you haven't named
• The two banker's boxes LaVerne kept in her closet for ten years
• The losses a new job, title, and salary can't replace
• A buried script, a eulogy, and the case for a good goodbye
• The C-suite leader who was grieving his old company in his new one
• Four steps to take when your career breaks your heart
• The HR executive who ran 18 months of layoffs and didn't see the grief coming

Connect with Laverne McKinnon, MCC: LinkedIn | Website | Substack

Connect with Traci here: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.