Leadership Renewal Manifesto: How Organizations Can Strengthen Retention, Culture & Performance After Mid-Level Leaders Experience Personal Challenges
I believe professional leadership doesn't stop when personal life gets hard.
I also believe personal leadership doesn’t pause for titles, performance reviews, or organizational charts. Divorce. Caregiving. Grief. Empty nesting. Health scares. Quiet reckonings... These personal challenges don’t make leaders weak — they make them human.
When organizations ignore that humanity, they don’t just lose people. They lose wisdom, loyalty, momentum, and trust.
This manifesto exists for the mid-level leaders who kept showing up while their personal world was shifting beneath their feet. And for the organizations courageous enough to say: We don’t discard leaders after life challenges them. We offer solutions to renew them.
I Stand for Renewal — Not Replacement
All mid-level leaders who've experienced personal challenges are not “burnt out problems to solve.” They are seasoned professionals carrying invisible weight.
They don’t need another productivity hack. They need space to breathe, recalibrate, and reconnect to who they are now...after their personal trial has ended.
Renewal isn't time off, nor is it avoidance. Renewal is strategic, intentional, and transformational.
When leaders renew, they don’t just return. They R.I.S.E.™ Renew. Ignite & Soar with Excellence.
I Reject the Myth of "Silent Strength."
Silence has been mistaken for professionalism for far too long.
Checking your personal challenges at the entry door before entering the building. Holding it together. Powering through. Smiling while silently unraveling.
That version of strength quietly erodes engagement, confidence, and retention.
True strength is not pretending. True strength is learning how to lead after everything changed. Organizations that create room for that truth, outperform, outlast, and out-care the rest.
The R.I.S.E.™ Standard
My work is grounded in a proven, human-centered, heart-led framework:
R.I.S.E.™ — Renew. Ignite. Soar with Excellence.
• Renew: We release outdated identities, roles, and expectations that no longer serve the leader or the organization. • Ignite: We reconnect leaders to clarity, confidence, and heart-led purpose. • Soar with Excellence: We translate renewal into sustainable performance, leadership presence, and cultural impact.
This isn't motivational theater. This is renewal with outcomes.
I Design Experiences — Not Just Power Points
Workshops should not be “endured.” They should be felt from the inside out!
My experiential workshops create safe, structured environments where leaders:
• Reclaim their voice
• Rebuild self-trust
• Strengthen emotional intelligence
• Reconnect to renewed values
• Translate insight into action
Transformation doesn’t happen in theory. It happens in experience.
I Partner With Organizations That Choose Courage
I work with organizations that understand:
• Retention is relational
• Culture is lived, not laminated
• Performance follows well-being
• Valued leaders are not disposable assets
These organizations don’t wait for disengagement surveys to sound the alarm. They don't wait until someone sees their leader crying at their desk. They intervene early. They invest wisely. They lead human-first. They retain valued leaders.
I Believe Mid-Level Leaders Are the Backbone
They are the translators, stabilizers, and culture carriers.
When they thrive, teams thrive. When they disengage, everything downstream feels it.
Renewing them is not a “nice-to-have.” It is a strategic imperative.
I Lead From Lived Experience
I don’t teach renewal from theory alone. I’ve lived it…more than once.
I’ve also successfully navigated 22 years of corporate leadership at various levels while parenting, caregiving, grieving, rebuilding, redefining, and renewing. I know what it means to succeed on paper while quietly recalibrating your soul.
Through the years, that lived wisdom began to shape every room I entered.
My Commitment
I commit to:
• Speaking what leaders are thinking but rarely say
• Holding compassionate, high standards
• Creating psychologically safe spaces
• Honoring faith, values, and humanity
• Delivering measurable impact—not just inspiration
This Is an Invitation
To mid-level leaders: You are not broken. You are becoming... and you don’t have to do it alone, nor outside of work on your own.
To organizations: Silence will cost you. You don't want to be an at-risk organization. Renewal will strengthen your retention and culture .
Choose wisely!
Leadership renewal is not a detour from performance. It's the pathway to it.
My book, "When Your Soul Whispers," reinforces renewal in both personal and professional life. Website
Licia Thompson-Young, CPC, ELI-MP Leadership Renewal Strategist for Mid-Level Leaders After Personal Challenges | Author | Experiential Workshop Facilitator | R.I.S.E.™ Expert