The Place in Between - March 2026

Recently, I've been reflecting on how much working in education requires the ability to wait…

Waiting for the White Paper; waiting for Ofsted; waiting to hear about promotions or staff moving on; waiting for exam results; waiting for budget news; waiting for the next meeting to get your item on the agenda… the list goes on. Yet it is still necessary to show up daily with professionalism, confidence and care for others, as you silently carry the weight of uncertainty, wondering what lies behind the next door to open up.

In education - and in life - the courage to remain steadfast during uncertainty may be one of the most under-recognised leadership capacities of all. What if waiting - for policy, inspection, promotion or results - could be held not as a cause of frustration or anxiety but as a valuable, integral part of our professional toolkit? What if the skill of holding steady now is understood to be precisely what enables confident movement later? What if the waiting in-between is there not to weaken our position, but to strengthen it?

In architecture, “liminal spaces” are designed to be disproportionately large for their basic function eg. hotel lobby areas, extra wide corridors, grand staircases. That is because they actually hold two core functions: firstly, to help people physically move between two different spaces and secondly, to influence their emotional and psychological experience - through lighting, shaping, colours etc.

Similarly, the “in-between” oversized periods of time we experience in our professional and personal life can hold huge significance for our mood, mindset and general morale. It often feels deeply uncomfortable to be lingering between what was and what will be; between certainty and uncertainty. However, when these moments are appreciated and embraced, they can be incredibly nurturing, and empowering. So let’s pay them some attention…

The term “liminal” comes from the Latin limen, meaning threshold. Anthropologists such as Arnold van Gennep and later Victor Turner described liminality as the middle stage of transition: no longer who/what you were, not yet who/what you are becoming. Often characterised by ambiguity or disorientation, it is not a void. Rather, it is transformation in progress. This can be true for both an individual and an organisation going through change.

Similarly, in Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, William Bridges distinguishes between change (the external event) and transition (the internal psychological process). He describes three stages: Ending, the Neutral Zone and New Beginning. The Neutral Zone, that liminal middle, can often be a place of resentment, anxiety, scepticism, low morale and disturbed productivity. Yet Bridges argues it is also the most creative phase. It is where reflection deepens and new identity starts to form. 

That feels particularly resonant in education, as schools and trusts can so often inhabit the Neutral Zone, awaiting direction, clarity or outcomes. This lack of big-picture certainty often feels at odds with the fast-paced, action-focused demands of our day-to-day work, as we plough on, making decision after decision, committed to providing the best opportunities we can for the children and communities we serve.

Psychologists, researchers and neuroscientists help us to understand this juxtaposition and how to make the most of it. 

In Rising Strong, research professor Brené Brown writes about the courage we demonstrate when we stay with discomfort rather than rush prematurely to resolution, asserting that growth does not happen because we avoid uncertainty; it happens because we remain present within it:

• "The middle is messy, but it's also where the magic happens."

• "Resilience is born by embracing the struggle"

• "You can't control what goes on outside, but you can control what goes on inside."

  
  

Whilst it is fairly easy to acknowledge the truth behind these words, sitting in liminal space often provides deep challenge for many of us. Afterall, our brain is wired to find solutions, to regain control, ultimately rooted in our core evolutionary need for predictability, safety and survival. 

The good news is that we know through the science of neuroplasticity that we can teach our brains to experience calmness and patience even when the circumstances around us doesn't make us feel this way naturally:

1. Focus your attention on your current experience (the brain will only make changes if the stimulus is tagged as important), then deliberately shift towards a sense of acceptance or opportunity, for instance by using breathwork and self-talk such as "this experience is making me stronger"

2. Repeat this regularly (the brain will 'prune' unused connections) - each repetition reinforces the new neural pathway, so less effort is required to access it each time

3. Feel - and name - the emotional impact of the new experience (this encourages your brain to accelerate and deepen the neural change) eg. I am feeling happier, calmer, more in control

Similarly, positive psychology research led by Martin Seligman highlights the role of 'interpretation' in creating resilience (I wrote about this in my blog Optimism - January 2025): how we explain the waiting to ourselves shapes how we experience it: how permanent, pervasive and personal do I believe it is?

Furthermore, the spiritual work of Eckhart Tolle asserts that strength is found not in predicting the future, but in anchoring attention to what is happening now.

“Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly.” – Eckhart Tolle

And of course if you hold an active faith or believe in fate, you may gain reassurance from the belief that what may feel like an oversized wait is actually the perfect fit, designed to allow for new and helpful thinking, data or people to emerge and positively influence the next steps when the time is right. 

Whichever theory resonates most with you, it certainly seems that waiting is in fact an active, not passive, discipline.

This is where coaching becomes quietly powerful. Coaching cannot remove liminal space but it can help you stand well within it, benefitting both your personal wellbeing and professional presence. Often, when we think about coaching, we imagine momentum, movement, progress, helping people to plan, act and shift. But it also supports stillness, and sometimes stillness is the harder discipline. In uncertainty, it is easy to grasp for control or to retreat into busyness, denying us the opportunity to give our experience full attention in order to learn from it. Coaching creates the space to articulate what this season actually feels like, without rushing to tidy it up. Like holding a pose, coaching builds awareness and strengthens internal posture: Where am I tense? Where am I steady? What assumptions am I carrying? It also helps to separate emotional reaction from considered response, so that when the time does come to move, your movement is grounded and intentional.

You’ll find a comprehensive overview of liminality here - Liminality Explained – but right now, we invite you to take a few moments for personal reflection:

• When liminal space occurs, what is your default response (action, avoidance, anxiety, reflection, acceptance) and what choice might serve you best?

• Where in your professional or personal life are you currently “holding a pose” and what does that feel like?

• If this in-between period were teaching you something, what might you learn from it?

My gentle encouragement for this short half-term is this: should you find yourself in a liminal place of waiting with uncertainty, make time to be still, celebrate the pause and pay attention. See it not simply a vacuous space, but as a significant place for you to build your strength, lean into your values, check-in with your beliefs and set your intentions. It is an opportunity to notice yourself amidst all the structure and activity of daily life. When we cannot control or influence, let us be intentional in our waiting, appreciating that this is an integral, valuable and defining part of leadership, and life.

Warmest wishes

Warmest wishes,

Catherine Hulme

Owner Director

catherine@leadershipedge.org.uk

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Leadership Edge is a growing team of experienced school leaders who have seen person-centred coaching create high-performing, happy and healthy cultures within our schools. Our mission is to empower other school leaders to create positive workplaces where staff are solution-focused and actively responsible for their own personal wellbeing and professional development.

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