Observations from the threshold. On grief, identity, leadership, and what it means to belong to yourself in the space between.
McKinsey found that unresolved grief affects fully one-third of executives, and organizations are consistently ill-equipped to handle it. The financial cost to US companies runs approximately $75 billion a year. But the loss of leadership capability, and the human suffering behind it, can seem beyond measure.
We celebrate momentum. We are suspicious of stillness. In leadership, in organizations, in the cultural story we tell about resilience, forward motion is the prize. But some thresholds need to be stood in, not crossed.
For most of us, the role was never just a job. It was how we understood ourselves in the world. Whether the transition was chosen or arrived without permission, the loss of the identity anchor is one of the most disorienting experiences a person can move through.