Authenticity and leadership in liminal space and time.
We are living in a liminal time – a threshold between what we once knew and what is still taking shape, where disruption has become less of an interruption and more of a condition of modern life.
In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning “a threshold”) is the feeling of disorientation when participants in an event are in transition from one stage to another.
It is a time between times – a transitional space.
We have all experienced this in-between state at some point in our lives, where we exist on the precipice between life before and life after. For some, a significant event evokes this feeling. It could be the loss of a loved one, the birth of a child, changing jobs, retirement, and so on. It can be an unfamiliar space of great uncertainty – a space between spaces – moving from something familiar, through doubt, fragility, vulnerability, into something new.
You can plan for liminal times in your life and put safeguards in place. By planning, you anticipate and prepare. You may even feel excited about this life change ahead.
The pandemic was our first collective experience of an unplanned liminal time. We did not expect it, nor did we want it, and yet it forced us to live in the space between what had been familiar and what had not yet taken shape.
COVID-19 was unlike anything many of us had experienced before: the anxiety, the ambiguity, the loss of control and the erosion of trust. It was a disruption that came about through no fault of our own, but it revealed much about how we respond when certainty disappears.
What made that moment so powerful was that it was shared. Some were affected more deeply than others, but everyone was touched in some way. We were all required to make sense of uncertainty at the same time, in our homes, communities, workplaces and within ourselves.
Several years on, the pandemic is no longer the only disruption defining our lives. Geopolitical tension, economic pressure, the continued acceleration of AI, climate events, social division and the constant pace of change have created a prolonged period of uncertainty. It is less like a single shock and more like an ongoing state of turmoil and upheaval, reinforcing a broader reality that uncertainty is no longer episodic – it’s structural.
The new normal is not a return to certainty. It is the capacity to live, lead and make sound decisions while the ground continues to shift beneath us.
The pandemic showed us that resilience is not simply about endurance. It requires adaptability, honest communication, trust, compassion and the ability to act without having every answer. Plans matter, but so does the willingness to revise them; people need clarity, but they also need humanity. These lessons are just as important today, as the ongoing uncertainty continues to test how we live, lead and respond to change.
As leaders, we need to face our fears and make courageous decisions with the incomplete information at hand. Leadership is not only about projecting certainty, it is about creating enough trust, purpose and steadiness for our people to keep moving forward.
In a world of rolling disruption our self-awareness, authenticity and purpose will continue to be tested.
Self-awareness helps us notice what uncertainty is doing to us. Authenticity asks whether our actions still align with who we say we are. Together, they keep us anchored to our purpose, helping us make choices that reflect what matters most even as circumstances continue to change.
Being authentic is about embracing the power to define your life and to write your story. When you look back on this ongoing liminal time, how will you judge yourself? Did you stay true to yourself? Did you remain open to learning, even when the lesson was uncomfortable? Will you emerge from this time transformed? Did you let go of the old to give way to the new?
