Growing as a leader, in the deepest sense, is about becoming someone whose interior life has grown large enough to hold the complexity that leadership at this level asks of you. That growth does not happen in moments of certainty. It happens in the in-between spaces with your willingness to stay present to the not-knowing and your trust that something is forming even when you can’t yet see it.

The leaders I work with are remarkable people. They show up, day after day, for their teams, their organizations, and the people who depend on them. And almost without exception, they are carrying more than they name. Underneath the productivity and performance, something else is happening. Something that rarely gets named in team meetings or in performance reviews. And that is loss and the grieving that follows.

I believe that this in-between space, the one that can feel the most uncertain and uncomfortable, is also the one where the most meaningful shifts begin to take place. In my occasional wiser moments, I know that this phase of life is not something to resolve, but something to learn to move within. It is a time to trust that the space between what was and what will be is not empty, but alive with possibility.

Much of what leaders bring into their roles has been shaped long before they are aware of it. Our histories, contexts, and lived experiences quietly influence how we relate to authority, difference, ambition, and responsibility – often in ways that only become visible when we pause to reflect.

There are times in our lives when the ground begins to quietly (or loudly) shift beneath us. The world around us changes - fast, unpredictably, and often painfully. And at the same time, something inside of us shifts too. Not in a dramatic or obvious way, but in a quiet and persistent way that is hard to ignore.