Coming Spring 2026

I wrote Who Holds the Leader? A Memoir of One Executive’s Grief and a Call for Organizational Change after navigating personal grief and loss while continuing to lead. The book begins with my own experience and reflects on how that season shaped my perspective as an executive. Along the way, it explores how many corporate environments struggle to thoughtfully support leaders during times of loss, and how those moments can be approached with greater intention and care.

I’m passionate about helping build workplace cultures where leadership, resilience, and grief are acknowledged and supported—allowing both people and organizations to move forward with clarity, strength, and effectiveness.

Contact Tamara

On February 22, 2025, Tamara O'Neil's husband, Steven, passed away from a massive heart attack. Within weeks, the high-performing executive faced a devastating truth: while organizations have protocols for employee bereavement, many lack effective protocols when grief reaches senior leadership.

This is the story of what happened next.

Who Holds the Leader? is part memoir, part reckoning. With unflinching honesty, O'Neil chronicles the collision of profound loss with organizational life. The silence, the fractured trust, the impossible choice between healing and staying, and the systemic failures that almost broke her.

But this book is more than one woman's story. O'Neil reveals a truth most organizations refuse to acknowledge: executive grief is inevitable, profoundly disruptive, and almost universally mishandled. The cost? Lost leaders, damaged teams, and cultures that sacrifice humanity for continuity.

For grieving leaders, this book offers validation and permission to be human without sacrificing credibility.

For organizations, it offers a stark warning and a path forward.

Reach out to Tamara at www.tamaraoneil.com.

What You'll Find Inside

A raw, honest account of leading through grief when the corporate playbook offers no guidance
The hidden costs of ignoring the human reality of grief in leadership
A framework for change that reimagines how organizations can support their leaders through loss
A call to action for building workplaces that acknowledge the full humanity of everyone, especially those at the top

Executive Leader/Management | Author of Who Holds the Leader? | Advocating for organizational cultures that support leaders through grief and loss

Who This Book Is For

Leaders navigating personal loss while maintaining professional responsibility
HR professionals and organizational development experts seeking to build more humane workplace cultures
Anyone who has wondered why our organizations struggle to support grief
Teams and boards working with leaders through difficult personal circumstances

If you've ever felt like you had to choose between being fully human and being an effective leader, this book is for you. Whether you're currently navigating loss, supporting someone who is, or simply recognize that grief will eventually touch every leader's life, Who Holds the Leader? offers something most leadership books won't: permission to be whole. Tamara doesn't just share her story—she gives you language for the impossible, strategies for the unthinkable, and a roadmap for building organizations that don't force leaders to fragment themselves to survive. This isn't a book you read and set aside. It's one that changes how you lead, how you support others, and how you show up when everything falls apart.