Hey there,

Last January, I sat down with my journal and made a list of leadership goals for the year. Stay laser-focused on what's working. Maintain healthy ambitions. Let "good enough" actually be good enough.

You know what happened? I kept doing the exact same things I'd always done. Because I never actually stopped to ask myself: What am I doing now that worked before but isn't working anymore?

That's the question I want to explore with you today.

Alli

What Got You Here Won't Get You There—And January Is Your Chance to Reset

December is strange territory for leaders.

Everyone's talking about next year's goals and new initiatives. But here's what I've learned: you can't build something new on top of behaviors that are already holding you back.

The promotion you earned? It changed the rules. The role you've grown into? It requires different approaches than the one you started with. And the leadership style that got you recognized last year might be the very thing creating bottlenecks now.

Before you plan what you're going to start doing in January, you need to get honest about what you need to stop doing.

The Habits We Keep That No Longer Serve Us

Here's what this looks like in practice.

Maybe you built your reputation on being the technical expert—the person who always had the answer. But now you're supposed to be setting direction and building capability in others, not demonstrating that you're still the smartest person in the room.

Maybe you've prided yourself on being decisive—seeing the solution quickly and stepping in to solve problems before they get worse. But now your team isn't learning to solve problems themselves. They bring everything to you because they know you'll have the answer, and you've accidentally made them dependent on your judgment.

Maybe you've spent years protecting your team from organizational politics—shielding them from the messy dynamics so they could focus on their work. But now they're unprepared to navigate complexity on their own, and you're exhausted from being the only one who understands how things really work.

These behaviors weren't wrong. They were exactly right—when you were building credibility and proving yourself. But what worked then doesn't work now that you're responsible for more.

The Bringing Forward vs. Leaving Behind Framework

This isn't about becoming a different person. It's about making intentional choices about which parts of your leadership style still serve you—and which ones don't.

Here's how to think about it:

These are the core strengths that define you as a leader. Your ability to see what others miss. Your commitment to developing your people. Your drive to get things done. These don't change—but how you express them might need to evolve.

These are the expressions of those strengths that worked before but create problems now. The need to understand every detail before you can move forward. The expectation that you'll be in every important conversation. The assumption that your job is to have all the answers.

Here's what to try this week:

STEP 1 | Identify one behavior creating friction

Not what you think you should work on—pick the thing that's genuinely draining your energy or slowing your team down right now.

STEP 2: Ask what strength it comes from

The need to review everything comes from your commitment to exceeding expectations. Being in every meeting comes from your drive to understand context. Having all the answers comes from your expertise. Name the strength underneath.

STEP 3: Notice the cost

What's this behavior actually creating? Your team waiting for your approval? Meetings you don't need to be in? People not bringing you problems until they've tried to solve them first? Get specific about the unintended impact.

STEP 4: Experiment with one small shift

Pick ONE thing to try differently this week. Maybe it's asking "What do you think we should do?" before offering your solution. Maybe it's declining one meeting and asking for the summary instead. Maybe it's letting one deliverable go out without your review.

The goal isn't perfection. It's noticing what happens when you let your strength show up differently.

What December Reveals

Year-end is when the cracks really show.

You can feel which leadership behaviors are unsustainable. The way you're working isn't going to make it through another year. The patterns creating stress aren't going away on their own.

December gives you something January doesn't: clarity born from exhaustion. You know what's not working. You can feel it.

The question is whether you're willing to do something about it—or whether you'll start next year the same way you started this one.

Your Turn

What's one leadership behavior that worked for you before but isn't serving you now? Not the behavior you think you should change. The one you can actually feel creating problems.

That's where your January reset begins.

Ready to Lead Differently in 2026?

I have limited openings for new coaching clients starting in January. If you're ready to honestly assess what's working and what's not—and build a sustainable approach for the year ahead—let's explore whether we're a fit.

To your sustainable leadership,

Alli

P.S. If this landed, hit reply and tell me: what's one leadership habit you know you need to let go of? I read every response, and I'd love to hear what's on your mind.

And if you know another leader who's feeling this tension between who they were and who they need to become, feel free to forward this along.