It’s an Identity Transition
My INSEAD professor for Leading Change; Roger Lehman’s words land with force — especially for those of us who sit inside the heart of organisational change.
We’re so trained to solve, to steer, to fix —
that we forget the one part of the system that doesn’t get restructured:
the leader’s sense of self.
One commercial leader I worked with had led his company through three mergers. On paper, he was unshakeable. But in our first session he said, ‘I’m still in charge. But I’m no longer sure I care.’
That’s where we began — not with strategy, but with giving him permission to feel what no one else could afford to.
That is identity-level change. And it rarely shows up in the formal narrative of organisational transformation.
In my work with ambitious commercial leaders, this is what keeps surfacing.
Not as a crisis.
But as a quiet inner tension no strategy can resolve.
- “I’ve built this whole system. And now I feel trapped in it.”
- “I’m still being followed. But I’m no longer sure where I’m going.”
- “My leadership works on paper. But it no longer feels like mine.”
These are not questions about performance or dysfunction
They’re about identity and indicators of evolution. And often go unrecognised, or worse – pathologized as change fatigue, burnout or resistance.
The version from you that succeeded —
that drove, decided, delivered —
might not be the version that can take you forward.
And this is where transformation really begins, with friction; who you are as a leader and who you are becoming.
Not with another roadmap.
But in the in-between.
The place where something old no longer works,
and something new hasn’t yet found language.
This is the uncomfortable reality of deep transition:
It doesn’t start with clarity.
It starts with shedding.
While most leaders rush to fix, restructure, or reframe – anything to avoid staying in this in-between.
The Leadership paradigm that’s breaking
Leadership has been built on the promise of certainty, mastery, decision making, vision.
But that model is increasingly unfit for the environment of VUCA leader now need to navigate in. Markets are nonlinear, Systems are strained. The pace of change is exponential And the demand for meaning, internally and externally, is no longer optional.
In this context, the most dangerous move is to continue performing authority that no longer feels real. Not leaders are lacking skills, but the identity underneath is the performance has not been allowed to shift. And when that shift is avoided, dissonance becomes systemic.
So what happens when the very role of the leader requires to step into uncertainty — visibly — and stay there?
The instinct is often to add new behaviours; communicate differently, delegate more, develop the team and reshape culture.
But none of it takes root if the leaders inner foundation remains outdated.
Leadership development that ignores the psychological transition behind transformation simply recycles the past with new language.
It’s not heroic.
It’s exposing.
That’s why most leaders don’t talk about this space.
It’s not in the KPI deck.
It’s not in the change communications.
But it is where all real shifts begin.
And that creates friction — first inside, then everywhere else.
Why does this matter now?
Because the old style of leadership — based on linear logic and tight control — is cracking.
The deeper work is quieter and harder to measure
It involves facing the end of who you’ve been
Letting go of the identity that built your career.
Allowing the discomfort of not knowing who you are – yet – as a leader in the new landscapt
So what do you do when your own role starts to feel foreign?
Most leaders try to tweak the external first:
restructure, pivot, realign, re-engage.
But real transformation requires the opposite move.
To pause.
To question the role — and your relationship to it.
To acknowledge the grief of letting go of what’s worked.
And to begin again — from somewhere quieter, deeper, more real.
This isn’t regression.
It’s transition
Closing thought
Transformation cannot be reduced to implementation. You definitely do not need a new leadership model.
It begins when you as leader are willing to question your role, the pace, the story — and your own relationship to all of it.
The process does not start with clarity. It starts with confrontation.
And it ends — if it ends well — with congruence.
No toolkit prepares you for that.
But nothing transforms an organisation more completely than a leader willing to go there.
No one teaches this part.
But it’s the only part that matters.
If you find yourself in that in-between — no longer fully aligned with the role you’ve perfected — it may be time to pause not the business, but the identity leading it.
I don’t offer a quick fix.
I hold space for leaders like you who are ready to examine the version of themselves that success has outgrown.
If this strikes a chord – let’s talk.
No pitch, no prep needed. Just a call to explore how your leadership story looks like.
Sometimes, one honest conversation is enough to shift the lens. Book your precious personal time via this link; https://calendly.com/margerieth-visser/discovery-meeting