Welcome to Heart Glow CEO, where high-performing leaders learn to regulate stress, strengthen self-trust, and make clear decisions without sacrificing their health or values. I'm Casey Rossi, Integrative Leadership Coach. Expect practical nervous system tools, conscious leadership insights, and real conversations that bring achievement into alignment.
Take a deep breath with me, and let's dive in. Hello, hello, and welcome back to Heart Glow CEO. Today I'm very grateful as I sit at my desk, the sun is beaming through, the air is clear, I have a hot cup of coffee, and the birds are chirping in the background.
And I thought it would be a good idea to pop on the mic and share with you a couple of thoughts I've been having regarding being in limbo. I see a lot of leaders right now in two different seasons where they have one foot in one spot and one foot in another. So it's really a season when leadership feels like standing with one foot in two different worlds.
Now you may be deciding whether to stay in your organization or begin looking somewhere else. Perhaps the structure around you is changing, positions are dissolving, new roles emerging. I had one leader that said, I think this is my third title change in a year.
Her head's spinning. And no one quite knows what the final picture will be. For some nonprofit leaders, the uncertainty could be tied to funding.
A grant decision is still pending. A program may continue, shrink, or disappear. Staffing questions are already surfacing, even though the financial picture is incomplete.
And the limbo may be personal. New motherhood has changed your energy and priorities. An aging parent needs more support, a health concern, a relationship shift, or family transition.
All of those can reshape what you can realistically give. Nothing is fully settled, yet the meetings continue. People still need direction and decisions still have to be made.
I just want to name something here. It's challenging to lead when part of you is focused on today and another part is trying to figure out where you'll land. That experience has been on my mind because I see so many thoughtful, capable leaders living inside it right now.
They're showing up. They're doing the work. From the outside, they may appear steady and engaged, although when they get in a safe, confidential container, internally something is much less anchored.
I think of this as split presence. Part of you is in the conversation, listening to your team or working through the next decision, and another part is watching for signs or symbols or clues, running scenarios, and trying to prepare for several different futures. Will my role still exist? Do I even want it to? Can the organization sustain this program? Is this a temporary season or is something larger changing? Can I continue leading at this pace while caring for the people who need me? These are not signs of weak leadership.
They are real questions, often touching identity, security, purpose, and belonging all at once. And I know because you're listening to this that you're most likely familiar with Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. So I just want you to think about that.
When you start to think about those questions that I shared with you, they are tied to your security, purpose, and belonging. These are basic human needs. The strain comes from trying to remain fully present while your mind is also overtime in creating certainty.
A delayed email can suddenly feel meaningful. A new reporting structure may seem like evidence of what's coming. So insert projected future doom, okay? An unexpected meeting invitation can set off an entire story before the conversation has even happened.
The mind does this for a very specific reason. It wants to protect us from surprise. Still, when too much attention moves into imagined futures, it becomes harder to work with what's actually here.
You may hesitate to bring something because you're unsure of whether you'll be around to finish it. Perhaps you take on even more, hoping that exceptional performance will make you indispensable. Some leaders begin emotionally stepping away long before they have made a conscious decision to leave.
That's one of the hardest ones when apathy starts to set in. Others stay physically present while their energy is already checked out. It's already somewhere else.
These are the challenges of split presence. It pulls at both sides. Moving forward with confidence feels difficult, but standing still doesn't feel restful either.
Can you relate? Most traditional leadership guidance assumes a relatively stable ground. Clarify the vision, make the plan, commit to the next step. But limbo.
So let's just look up the definition of limbo. Limbo is defined as an intermediate, uncertain state of being, transition, or prolonged inactivity. Being in limbo means progress is halted, decisions are pending, or a situation is unresolved.
So limbo asks us for a different kind of leadership. It doesn't always need a quick answer. Sometimes it needs enough steadiness to stay honest in relationship with what's unfolding.
I think part of it really begins by naming. Naming it. So bringing this radical honesty to yourself about it first.
And maybe it's just, my role's changing, and I don't know what that means. Or I care about this organization, but I'm also wondering if it's still a good fit for me. Or my responsibilities outside of work have increased, and the way I've been leading, I can't do it anymore.
It's not going to be sustainable. There's something very grounded about clear language. It reduces the energy spent trying to act as though everything's fine.
You're fine. It's fine. I guess I'm fine.
So when we get to clearly be honest and name it, something happens. It changes the perspective. It also changes part of your nervous system.
It gives your nervous system an opportunity to exhale. From there, it helps to separate what's true today from what's still taking shape. The organization may be restructuring.
That's true. Your position disappearing may still be a possibility rather than a fact. The grant has not yet been approved.
That's true. The program closing is one possible outcome, but it has not happened. Your capacity has changed.
That may also be true. It doesn't automatically mean that your career, contribution, or leadership is ending. Do you hear how these distinctions are simple but important? When every possibility is treated as though it's already happening, the body starts to stay in a state of constant preparation, bracing.
You actually may even see this coming up inside your system. You may be clenching your teeth. You may be getting chronic headaches.
You may be feeling an upsetness in your stomach for no reason. These are signs that your body is in a state of constant preparation. You can remain aware of what may be coming without living inside every possible version of it.
Here's the thing. Let's just look at this. What would it look like if a shorter decision horizon was a part of this as a solution? During a period of uncertainty, asking yourself to map out the next five years, that's going to create way more pressure than clarity.
Let's think of another more helpful question. What can I commit to with integrity for the next 30 days? And honestly, if you're in crisis mode, how about what does it look like to be aligned in this Monday through Friday? Maybe you block it down into a week. And you know what? There's no shame in blocking it down to a day.
How do I show up as my best self present today? Perhaps you can lead the current initiative well without making a promise about how long you'll remain. You may begin exploring other opportunities while continuing to serve your team responsibly. At home, the next step might be requesting more support, adjusting your schedule, or simply gathering information before making a larger change.
A shorter horizon doesn't mean that you lack vision. It means you're making decisions that match the information available now. I want you to hear that.
There's also an identity piece to limbo that often goes unspoken. When a new role becomes uncertain, it can shake more than a career plan. It can affect how you see yourself, titles, roles, organizations.
They can become closely connected, if not intertwined with identity, especially for leaders who care deeply about their work. An organizational change may alter where your strengths are expressed, but it doesn't erase them. Your ability to build trust, make thoughtful decisions, communicate clearly, and care for people remains with you.
No one can take that away. Those qualities are not owned by a job title. Remembering that you can reduce the urge to prove your value at the exact moment when you most need discernment.
I want you to think about that. And obviously, communication. You already know this.
It is so important during these seasons. It's always important, but I think during these times when there's split presence, it always comes a little bit more to a top priority. Because people can sense when something's shifting, even if they don't have the full story.
Leaders feel pressure to either stay silent or offer reassurance they can't honestly give. There is this middle ground, and it could sound something like, there are changes underway, and I will share as soon as I have more information. Or maybe for a funding situation, yeah, we're still waiting on a decision.
I don't want to speculate, but I'll keep you informed as we learn more. It's so simple. It can be a one-liner.
I had a leader who got demoted, and she was really in this fear mode. And she had one of her, well, her main office was shifted to more of a community space. And she was really struggling with how to field the questions of, why are you out here? Why aren't you in your office? You don't have to give the full details.
But part of really being grounded and in alignment, standing as a leader, it can just be a really simple one-liner. There were some shifts, and I am now XXX. However it is, it's a kind of communication that's clear, and you don't have to be overly revealing.
It doesn't pretend certainty, and it doesn't invite everyone into your private process. Perhaps that's one of the most important leadership practices in Limbo, is remaining trustworthy while the story is still unfolding. Perhaps that's one of the most important leadership practices in Limbo, remaining trustworthy while the story is still unfolding.
You don't need to perform confidence when you don't feel it. You also don't need to make a permanent decision simply to escape the discomfort of not knowing. The work may be quieter than that.
Stay close to the facts. Notice where your attention is going. Choose commitments that fit the season you're actually in.
And like I said, that could be, what do I know today? Create enough space to hear your own wisdom beneath the urgency. Honestly, if you only take one thing away from what I'm sharing with you today, take that sentence. Create enough space to hear your own wisdom beneath the urgency.
One thing I know for sure is eventually something will become clear. Time is pretty magical, because a decision will be made. The funding will come through, or it will not.
The role will change, end, or take a new shape. Life will ask for an adjustment. Until then, leadership may look less like pushing forward and more like learning how to stand with both feet in the present, even when the future remains unfinished.
Limbo is not empty space. It is a real season of leadership, and it deserves a way of leading that is honest, grounded, and human. Please give yourself that gift.
Please take a moment, a breath, even a day off, to give yourself grace as you start to navigate these seasons in a way that feels good to you, in that heart-centered way. All the love that you give people in your mission, just take a moment to turn it right around and give it to yourself. That is my invitation for you today.
Thank you so much for listening. If you want to leave any comments, you can head on over to www.lovethepodcast.com/brilliance. Thank you so much.
