I’m a breast cancer survivor. You may have your own cancer story, or perhaps you’ve experienced a different kind of personal crisis that profoundly changed your life. Whether it’s a serious illness, the loss of someone you love, a divorce, financial difficulties, or another unexpected challenge, most of us eventually face circumstances that make it difficult to separate our personal lives from our professional responsibilities.
For executives and senior leaders, these experiences can feel particularly complicated. Leadership positions often come with significant expectations, demanding schedules, and the responsibility of making decisions that affect employees, customers, and the future of an organization. When a personal crisis interrupts that responsibility, even experienced leaders can struggle to determine how much to share, how to manage their workload, and whether acknowledging their circumstances could affect how others perceive their leadership.
These questions become even more complicated when you’re considering a career transition or actively pursuing a new executive opportunity. How much should a prospective employer know about what you’re experiencing? How do you maintain professional credibility while acknowledging that your personal circumstances have changed?
The answers depend on your situation, your organization’s culture, and the relationships you’ve developed throughout your career. However, several principles can help you navigate personal challenges without sacrificing your well-being or your professional relationships.
1. Redefine What It Means to Do Your Best at Work
When you’re dealing with a significant personal challenge, maintaining your usual level of professional performance may not always be realistic. The emotional and physical demands of a serious illness, a family emergency, or a major life transition can affect your concentration, energy, and ability to manage competing priorities.
That doesn’t mean your commitment to your work has disappeared, nor does it diminish the leadership experience and capabilities you’ve developed throughout your career.
The original advice I shared after my breast cancer experience was to continue doing your best at work, regardless of what you were experiencing personally. I still believe in that principle, but I also recognize that doing your best can look different during difficult seasons of life.
For an executive, this may mean delegating responsibilities that would ordinarily remain on your desk, adjusting expectations with your leadership team, or identifying which decisions genuinely require your involvement. It may also mean taking time away from work to address a health issue or support your family.
Effective leaders understand that their responsibility extends beyond completing every task themselves. They create systems, develop capable people, and build organizations that can function when circumstances require them to step away.
In fact, the way you manage a personal crisis can reveal something important about your leadership. An executive who communicates clearly, establishes priorities, and trusts others to carry responsibilities demonstrates many of the same capabilities that organizations value in their senior leadership teams.
Your professional reputation develops over years of decisions, relationships, and results. A difficult period in your personal life does not erase those accomplishments.
2. Consider Your Corporate Culture Before Deciding How Much to Share
One of the most difficult decisions during a personal crisis involves determining how transparent to be with colleagues, supervisors, and other professional relationships.
I would love to tell you that every organization responds to personal difficulties with understanding and compassion. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case.
Some organizations have developed cultures where employees feel comfortable discussing personal challenges and asking for support. Others operate in environments where people worry that acknowledging a struggle will cause colleagues to question their commitment, reliability, or ability to lead.
For senior executives, those concerns can be particularly significant. Leaders may worry that disclosing a medical condition, family difficulty, or personal crisis could influence succession discussions, future advancement opportunities, or the confidence that board members and ownership groups place in them.
This is why understanding your corporate culture matters.
Before sharing sensitive personal information, consider the relationships you’ve established and how your organization has responded when others have experienced difficult circumstances. Have leaders demonstrated compassion and discretion? Do employees feel comfortable requesting flexibility when necessary? Does the organization respect personal boundaries, or does it reward people primarily for their willingness to remain available at all times?
You don’t need to share every detail of your personal life to communicate effectively. In many situations, explaining how your circumstances may affect your availability or responsibilities is more useful than providing extensive personal information.
For example, you might tell your leadership team that you’re managing a family health situation and will need additional flexibility over the coming weeks. You can then establish expectations for communication, decision-making, and coverage of critical responsibilities.
This approach allows you to remain professional while maintaining appropriate boundaries. It also helps others understand how they can support you without requiring you to disclose more than you’re comfortable sharing.
A healthy corporate culture should make these conversations easier, but regardless of the environment, you have the right to make thoughtful decisions about your privacy.
3. Pay Attention to How Organizations Respond to Personal Challenges
For executives exploring new career opportunities, corporate culture often becomes one of the most important considerations in the executive recruiting process.
Compensation, title, strategic responsibility, and growth potential all matter, but so does the organization’s approach to its people.
A company’s response to employees experiencing difficult personal circumstances can reveal more about its leadership philosophy than a carefully written values statement.
During an executive interview, candidates naturally focus on business performance, organizational priorities, ownership expectations, and opportunities for growth. However, understanding how the company treats people when life becomes complicated deserves attention as well.
Consider asking how the organization supports executives during periods of significant personal responsibility or how the leadership team manages unexpected absences and transitions. You might also explore how leaders model work-life boundaries and whether the company has developed the internal leadership capacity to maintain continuity when someone needs to step away.
These conversations can be particularly revealing in family-owned and privately held businesses, where relationships, ownership dynamics, and organizational culture often have a substantial influence on the executive experience.
A company that values its people as individuals, rather than solely for their productivity, is more likely to create an environment where leaders can build sustainable careers.
For executive candidates, evaluating that environment should be part of the decision-making process, not an afterthought once an offer arrives.
4. Remember the Difference Support Can Make
When I chose to share my breast cancer story, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who responded with cancer stories of their own.
Some had experienced cancer personally, while others had supported family members or close friends through similar circumstances. Their willingness to share those experiences helped me feel less alone during an uncertain and frightening time.
I felt fortified by the many people who had dealt with cancer and emerged from the experience with a different perspective on life. Their encouragement came in many forms, including practical advice for managing fears, thoughtful emails, personal conversations, and hugs when words weren’t necessary.
Those gestures made an enormous difference.
I also came to appreciate that people don’t always need someone to solve their problems. Sometimes they simply need to know that someone understands what they’re experiencing and genuinely cares about how they’re doing.
That lesson applies directly to professional relationships.
When a colleague, employee, or fellow executive shares a personal challenge, they’re extending a measure of trust. How you respond can strengthen that relationship or make the person regret having shared anything at all.
You don’t need to have experienced the same circumstances to offer meaningful support. Listening without judgment, respecting confidentiality, and asking what would genuinely be helpful are often more valuable than immediately offering advice.
For executives, these interactions carry additional significance because employees pay attention to how leaders treat people during difficult moments.
A leader who responds with compassion and practical support helps establish an environment where people feel respected. Over time, those everyday interactions shape organizational trust, employee loyalty, and the culture that future leaders inherit.
5. Recognize That Personal Challenges Can Influence Your Career Decisions
Major personal experiences often change the way people think about their careers.
An executive who once prioritized advancement, compensation, or professional recognition may begin placing greater importance on flexibility, organizational values, meaningful work, or the ability to spend time with family.
Others discover that navigating a difficult personal situation has strengthened their desire to lead, mentor, or contribute to an organization with a mission they genuinely believe in.
These changes don’t necessarily mean you’ve become less ambitious. They may simply mean that your definition of professional success has evolved.
If you’re pursuing a new leadership position, it’s worth taking time to understand how your personal experiences have influenced what you want from the next chapter of your career.
What kind of organizational culture will allow you to do your best work? What expectations are you willing to accept, and which ones no longer align with your priorities? How important are relationships with ownership, board members, and fellow executives?
An experienced executive recruiter can help you evaluate these considerations alongside the more traditional aspects of an opportunity, including responsibilities, compensation, organizational stability, and long-term advancement.
You also have choices about how to discuss personal circumstances during an executive job search. You generally don’t need to disclose sensitive medical or family information during interviews, and you can explain a career gap or transition in a way that remains truthful without revealing private details.
What matters most is your ability to communicate your professional experience, leadership capabilities, and readiness for the responsibilities of the position.
Leadership Is Revealed in How We Treat People During Difficult Times
My experience with breast cancer reinforced something I believe every leader should understand: the people we work with have lives that extend far beyond their professional responsibilities.
They have families, personal ambitions, health concerns, financial pressures, and experiences that shape who they are. Even the most accomplished executives encounter circumstances they cannot control.
Organizations that recognize this reality are better positioned to build the trust and relationships necessary for strong leadership teams.
For candidates considering their next executive opportunity, this is an important reminder to evaluate more than the job description. Pay attention to how an organization treats its people, how its leaders respond to adversity, and whether its stated values translate into everyday behavior.
At Centennial, we believe successful executive search involves understanding both the organization and the individual. The right leadership opportunity should align with your professional capabilities, your values, and the kind of environment where you can make a meaningful contribution.
Because while personal challenges may temporarily change how we work, they should never cause us to forget the value of the person behind the professional title.
-Becky Scheeler