Visionary leaders are wired to build and expand, but lasting growth demands something quieter. Athena member Kelli Richards shares why her own season of retreat became a crucible for deeper leadership and clarity.
This article was originally published on the LinkedIn of Kelli Richards and is published with permission.
Visionary leaders are often seen as unstoppable — always innovating, building, expanding. But what few understand is that sustained expansion requires intentional contraction.
Visionary leaders are wired for motion — to create, expand, and continually evolve. Yet the most profound growth doesn’t happen while we’re sprinting ahead; it happens when we pause, retreat, and allow the old layers of identity and ambition to dissolve. I’ve been going through this metamorphosis myself throughout this year (reluctantly in all candor); it can be a lonely process so I thought it might be helpful to share some insights and observations.
Just like nature, leadership moves in seasons. There are moments for rapid growth and visibility — and there are moments when the wisest, most strategic move is to pull back and cocoon. Periods of transformation require a kind of energetic molting — what nature models in the cocoon. The caterpillar doesn’t become a butterfly by doing more; it dissolves into a formless state before re-emerging as something entirely new. Visionary leaders experience a similar process each time they level up.
This is not weakness. It’s wisdom, growth and expansion.
Because when you’re evolving to your next level of leadership or creativity, you can’t bring the old frequency with you. The habits, relationships, or even your self-concept that worked for you before – sometimes for many years – won’t sustain the new altitude you’re ascending to.
The cocoon isn’t a retreat from the world — it’s a reorientation to your essence. It’s where the identity that was begins to dissolve, and the one that’s becoming starts to form. Pulling back isn’t withdrawal — it’s refinement. The cocoon is where integration happens: old belief systems, outdated strategies, and unaligned energies are digested to make room for the next expression of leadership. What looks like stillness from the outside is actually radical reconfiguration.
Each major reinvention asks a leader to release who they’ve been to that point — the persona that succeeded at one altitude but can’t breathe at the next. It’s nothing short of an identity death and rebirth. This liminal space can feel disorienting or lonely, but it’s also where clarity, new creativity, and authentic power are reborn if we can surrender to what’s happening and trust the process.
In nature, the caterpillar doesn’t simply grow wings — it dissolves entirely into a liquid state before reorganizing itself as something unrecognizable from its prior form. It’s messy, dark, and invisible work — it cannot be rushed — and that’s precisely why so few honor it.
But this metamorphosis is where every true reinvention begins. What feels like being lost is simply a part of your soul rearranging the path along your journey.
The visionary’s cocoon is that liminal space — the pause between what’s ending and what’s emerging. It’s the season of integrating lessons, shedding layers, and tuning into new frequencies of truth and purpose. This is sacred re-alignment.
Steve Jobs — After being ousted from Apple, Jobs didn’t immediately rush into the next big thing. He cocooned. He explored Pixar, NeXT, design, Zen Buddhism, and fatherhood — absorbing experiences that redefined his worldview. When he returned to Apple, he wasn’t the same man; he was a leader who understood simplicity, artistry, and integration and the importance of trusting his gut. The products that followed (iMac, iPod, iPhone) were born from that gestation period.
Beyoncé — She frequently disappears from public view for long stretches between albums. These are not hiatuses; they are incubations. Her creative retreats give her the space to listen inwardly — to shed external noise and surface with work that sets new cultural standards. Each reinvention feels like a rebirth, fueled by stillness.
Elon Musk — For all his visible output, Musk has moments of deep strategic silence before each major pivot — from PayPal to SpaceX to Tesla to Neuralink. Behind the scenes, these are cocoon phases where he’s absorbing new domains, synthesizing complex systems, and preparing to leap across industries.
Ava DuVernay — Known for weaving soul and social justice through art, she often speaks about needing solitude between projects. Her cocooning is where clarity and courage converge — the space where she redefines what kind of stories she’s here to tell next.
Each of these innovators used the pause as an accelerator. They didn’t confuse silence with stagnation. They understood that pulling back can often be the most potent strategy for expansion.
When you’re in a growth portal, your internal signal — intuition, creativity, discernment — becomes more sensitive. External noise can easily distort it.
Pulling back protects your energetic bandwidth and your nervous system from distraction, allowing intuition and inner knowing to recalibrate and realign. It enables you to listen more deeply, discern what’s no longer aligned, and let your next vision find you, rather than forcing it into being. This is how leaders realign with their deeper purpose rather than defaulting to past momentum.
During these periods, many leaders find themselves:
This isn’t regression. It’s regeneration.
In regenerative systems — whether nature, the body, or business — sustainability comes from cycles of renewal. The soil must rest before the next harvest. The tide must recede before it rises again.
Leadership is no different.
Cocooning isn’t idleness; it’s regenerative. Just as the soil must rest to yield new growth, leaders need seasons of restoration to sustain impact. These quiet phases are what make the next leap not just possible — but inevitable. Visionary leaders who ignore this rhythm eventually burn out, they lose resonance, and can start to drift and lose direction. Those who honor it return renewed, magnetic, and clear — capable of leading from presence rather than pressure.
The cocoon is not a collapse. It’s the sacred interval between versions of you — where the next level of your leadership, creativity, and consciousness is coded. Those who honor that rhythm don’t fall behind; they emerge ahead, more whole, resonant, and ready for what’s next.
If you find yourself in a cocoon season, don’t fight it. Don’t mistake the quiet for a lack of progress. Something essential is reordering beneath the surface for you.
Ask yourself:
Your next chapter doesn’t need to be forced into existence. It will unfold naturally when you honor the sacred pause — when you choose to trust that silence, stillness, and solitude are the soil of transformation. I’ve guided many of my clients through this process so if you’d like support with this, please reach out.
Final Thought: The cocoon isn’t the end of your story — it’s the in-between where your future self is quietly forming. Those who learn to honor this rhythm don’t just survive evolution — they lead it.
Kelli Richards is a lifelong native Silicon Valley innovator, leader and visionary; a long-time Apple exec mentored by Steve Jobs for decades. She works with some of the most innovative growth stage companies helping them to unlock the full vision of their founders and senior management teams as they continue to scale. providing continued support to c-suite management team leaders and clients on global growth strategy, key partnerships, and content and consumer initiatives. leveraging innovation and emerging technologies as well as new business models to work smarter, more efficiently, and to accelerate success.
Kelli has been called” a force multiplier” who combines more than 25 years of senior level business experience in tech innovation with her talent for bridging industry sectors, and connecting individuals and teams to their work in a way that liberates their untapped potential and accelerates growth. A trusted advisor to founders and innovators, she’s also a thought partner to senior leaders, family offices and creatives. Simply put, when someone has challenging expensive problems they can’t solve on their own, or they need fresh insights and are seeking new direction, possibilities or alternatives, they call Kelli.
© Athena Alliance 2026
