Unfolding at the Edge

At a certain level of leadership, the challenge stops being about competence.

You already know how to execute. What becomes harder — and more consequential — is how you make sense of what’s happening when the signals aren’t clear: when the strategy is still forming, the system isn’t aligned, and there’s no single right answer to find.

In those moments, what matters isn’t just what you do. It’s how you’re seeing.

If you’ve ever carried one of those moments home at the end of a long day — the ones that don’t resolve cleanly, the ones that stay — you’re in the right place.

Unfolding at the Edge is an invitation to slow down exactly that kind of moment. To look more carefully at the patterns shaping how we interpret difficult situations, the assumptions that narrow what feels possible, and the reactions that feel automatic but aren’t inevitable.

I’m Nida Backaitis. I’ve spent thirty years inside organizations — first as a leader, then as an advisor, and now as an executive coach — watching how people at the senior level navigate the gap between what they know and what a situation is actually asking of them. I hold a Ph.D. from Columbia Business School and a Professional Certified Coach designation from the International Coaching Federation. I was part of Brené Brown’s first Dare to Lead facilitator cohort. Earlier in my career, I worked directly with W. Edwards Deming — an experience that shaped how I think about systems, fear, and what gets in the way of people doing their best work.

I’m glad you’re here.