Leadership Purgatory

Organizations believe “ready next” is a compliment.
Often, it’s the beginning of a leadership identity transition the organization never resolves.

I was sitting in a talent review meeting when a well-respected junior leader’s name came up for discussion. The conversation moved the way these conversations often do; someone described his performance and someone else added context about his team. People around the table began to nod, and eventually someone said what everyone seemed to already be thinking: He’s ready next.

There was easy agreement around the room. Minimal debate. No hesitation. It felt like a settled fact and then the conversation moved on.

The slide deck advanced to the next name, the next role, the next discussion. No role had opened and no timeline was set for when “next” might actually arrive. No decision was made and no movement was created. The meeting simply continued.

But later that day I kept thinking about that moment. Because something significant had just happened in that room, and no one seemed to treat it as significant.

When we call someone “ready next,” we tend to think we are simply describing their performance or potential. A kind of observational statement. But the more I’ve watched these moments inside organizations, the more convinced I’ve become that the statement is doing something else entirely. Calling someone “ready next” is not just a description; it starts something.

Inside the room it can feel like a quick assessment, just a way of acknowledging strong performance or future potential, but the moment those words are spoken, something has already been set in motion. A ball set in gentle motion at the top of a hill.

The leader begins to see their role differently: Their expectations shift, they begin stepping toward larger problems and broader responsibilities, other people in the organization often start to relate to them differently as well, pulling them into conversations that sit just beyond their current scope. None of this requires a formal promotion. It happens gradually, almost quietly, the way identity tends to change. And yet in many organizations, nothing else actually changes.

I’ve started to think of this space as leadership purgatory.

Leadership purgatory is what happens when identity advances faster than organizational decisions.

Psychologically, the leader has already begun moving forward. They are thinking about the business differently and stepping into larger conversations. In many ways they are already operating closer to the next level. But structurally, nothing has changed. The organization has not made a decision about role, scope, or timing.

So the person ends up suspended between positions. They are no longer fully experiencing themselves as the leader they were before, but they are not actually in the next role either. Expectations often grow during this period while authority and clarity do not grow alongside them.

It is a strange place to stand. And one that many high performers eventually recognize.

Leadership purgatory rarely happens because anyone intends it to. From the organization’s perspective, the situation often looks reasonable, maybe even benevolent or required. Leadership teams are trying to develop talent. They are giving capable people stretch opportunities, broader visibility, and exposure to larger decisions. The bench looks stronger and the individual is gaining experience. On paper, everything appears positive.

The problem usually lies somewhere quieter.

Sometimes it’s simple decision avoidance. Advancing someone requires tradeoffs, movement, or difficult conversations, and organizations are often slower to make those decisions than they realize. Sometimes there are structural constraints. The next role isn’t open yet, or the timing doesn’t align. And sometimes leadership teams prefer the flexibility of continued development without committing to a specific outcome. Keeping optionality can feel responsible, but by the time someone has been publicly described as “ready next,” something deeper has already begun.

Leadership advancement is not only a structural change; It is also an identity transition.

When someone is named “ready next,” they begin to measure themselves differently. They start paying attention to different kinds of problems. They imagine their future in the organization through a different lens. The role they thought they were in begins to feel smaller, or at least temporary.

Identity, once it starts moving forward, has a hard time settling back into the space it occupied before. This is often where the tension begins to surface. What once felt like opportunity starts to feel ambiguous. Energy gives way to uncertainty. In some cases frustration quietly grows. In others, people simply begin to look elsewhere for the clarity they cannot find where they are.

Over time, I’ve come to think that leadership advancement sits at the intersection of three forces:

Advancement. Organizations eventually have to make real decisions about roles and scope. Development can prepare someone, but advancement requires structural movement.

Identity. As leaders grow, their internal sense of responsibility begins to expand before their title reflects it.

Clarity. The organization has to provide resolution about what is actually happening next.

When advancement, identity, and clarity move together, leadership transitions tend to feel natural. When identity begins to move but advancement stalls and clarity disappears, leaders often find themselves in leadership purgatory. Once you see the dynamic this way, it becomes harder to treat the phrase “ready next” as a casual observation.

When an organization names someone ready for the next role, it inherits a responsibility. Because that statement starts something. Identity has already begun to shift. Expectations have already changed. Psychologically, the leader has already stepped forward. At that point the organization owes something in return: structure, clarity, and eventually resolution. That decision does not have to be immediate. Sometimes the honest answer is simply not yet, delay itself is not the problem.

The real damage comes from the indefinite suspension, when identity has already moved forward but the system never quite follows with the clarity that allows the transition to resolve.

Organizations often believe they are developing leaders, but when they label someone “ready next,” they are also initiating that identity transition and once that transition begins, the organization eventually has to decide what comes next.

Leadership purgatory rarely appears because of a lack of talent.

It appears when identity has already begun to advance, but the system hesitates to decide.