2025 in the Rearview Mirror
As 2025 comes to a close, I find myself reflecting less on resolutions and more on results. What worked, what didn’t, and what the year demanded.
It was a year marked by both momentum and resistance. Progress and setbacks. Moments of clarity alongside moments that tested patience and resolve. I stayed committed to the goals that mattered most, even when the outcomes didn’t fully match my expectations. While not every target landed where I wanted it to, the year delivered something more valuable than a clean scorecard: perspective.
Looking back, three leadership lessons stand out. They are mistakes I won’t repeat as I move into 2026.
Mistake #1 – Matching My Pace to Other People’s Comfort Zones
I have always operated with speed. I tend to make decisions quickly, often guided by experience and instinct. Over time, I have learned that while data is critical, instinct matters when it is built on repetition, pattern recognition, and lived experience, when I have ignored that internal signal, the outcome has rarely been positive.
This year reinforced a hard truth. Environments change fast. What worked even months ago can quietly become outdated. When momentum slows in the name of comfort or excessive deliberation, opportunity does not wait.
I allowed hesitation, both mine and others’, to influence the timing of decisions that required urgency. That delay carried real consequences. The lesson was clear. Alignment matters, but so does velocity. As a leader, it is my responsibility to set the pace and ensure the organization can move with it.
Mistake #2 – Confusing Revenue Growth With Business Health
In the early stages of a business, revenue is survival. You chase it wherever you can. But as a company matures, the equation changes. Growth without balance introduces complexity, and complexity exposes weaknesses.
This year reminded me that revenue alone is not the scoreboard. Profitability, operational discipline, and focus matter just as much. When attention narrows too tightly on large opportunities, it is easy to overlook the consistent drivers that keep a business healthy day to day.
The takeaway for me was discipline. Sustainable growth requires balance, not fixation. Momentum is built by protecting the fundamentals while still investing in what comes next.
Mistake #3 – Making Big Moves Before the Team Was Fully Ready
This was the most consequential lesson of the year.
An ambitious strategy only works when the right people are in the right roles. Without that alignment, leaders compensate by stepping into gaps, over-managing, and carrying more than they should. That strain shows up on both sides.
I waited too long to address leadership capacity, and it slowed execution. Once the right structure was in place, everything changed. Progress accelerated. Ownership increased. The organization shifted into a higher gear, not through pressure, but through clarity and trust.
That experience reinforced something I believe deeply. Strong teams do not just support strategy. They unlock it.
As I look toward 2026, I do so with greater conviction about how I lead, how I decide, and where I invest my time and energy. The goal is not perfection. It is progress, made deliberately, with the right people, moving at the right speed.
That is the standard I am carrying forward.