Leadership Reflections from 2025

As I wrap up the final coaching sessions of 2025, I’ve been sitting with a deep sense of reflection and gratitude. This was my fullest year yet, and I am grateful for the leaders I get to work with, for the stories they trust me with, and for the growth I get to be a part of.

Every December, I try to pause long enough to notice the patterns. What keeps coming up? What are leaders wrestling with beneath the surface? What questions did we ask again and again?

This year, three themes rose above the rest, and they all point to a tension I think many of us already feel: as the world gets more and more complex, our edge as leaders stems from our authenticity and humanity.

1. How we show up matters more than how much we do

There’s a moment in every career when technical excellence stops being the differentiator. This was the year many leaders realized that the next level of their impact wasn’t going to come from doing more, pushing harder, or perfecting the next deliverable.

It was going to come from presence, and in defining what authentic leadership actually looks like for them.

I worked with many of my clients this year to define their unique leadership brand and voice, built from their values, their strengths, and their defining moments.

The lesson: How you lead is now more important than what you execute.

2. Our personal lives always come with us, even when we pretend they don’t

This one came up in almost every session. Leaders managing aging parents. New babies. Moves across the country. Layoffs. Marriages that were stretching. Careers that were shifting.

These personal realities quietly, or maybe not so quietly 😐, shape how we show up in rooms, how we tolerate stress, and how we respond when the pressure hits.

Ignoring those parts of ourselves doesn’t make us stronger leaders. In fact, ignoring those parts is often the nail in the coffin of burnout. This mantra of “work through, push harder” doesn’t actually work. Acknowledging them does.

Again and again, I saw that giving language and space to what’s happening at home creates clarity and compassion for how that impacts us at work.

The lesson: Leadership is personal, and that is a strength. It always has been.

3. The path forward is often simpler than we think

The most common statement said in my sessions was, “This seems so obvious!”

What surprised many leaders wasn’t complexity; it was simplicity. That doesn’t mean that simple equals easy. It most certainly does not. But it does give a sense of clarity and confidence in the next step forward.

Clarity often showed through simple, yet powerful questions:
“What’s most important about this?”
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid of consequences?”
“What values do you want to drive this decision/action/etc?”

When we’re tangled up in complexity, it becomes hard to unwind on our own. Sometimes, we just need someone sitting across from us reflecting back what’s already true.

The Lesson: Keep it simple.

And, here’s a bonus fourth theme from my own lessons this year: communication is the foundation of everything. Communication is strongest when it is authentic and when it is relational. AI bots may be everywhere. Heck, by next year, they may be running the world, but they cannot be a replacement for human connection. Your voice and perspectives matter more than ever. I hope that is a clear theme we can carry on into 2026!