Why Leadership Is Shaped Early: Setting the Tone for the Year Ahead

There’s a subtle danger that comes with the start of a new year.

Not burnout.
Not apathy.
Momentum.

Momentum feels productive. It feels energizing. It gives the illusion of progress. But momentum, by itself, is not direction. And too often, leaders confuse movement with intentionality.

I’ve entered new years before already in motion—meetings on the calendar, goals in mind, responsibilities waiting. Everything felt urgent. Everything felt necessary. Yet somewhere along the way, I realized I never actually stopped long enough to choose how I wanted to lead that year. I was moving quickly, but I hadn’t set the tone.

Leadership doesn’t usually unravel in dramatic moments. It drifts quietly—through what we tolerate, what we rush past, and what we normalize early.

Momentum Is Not the Same as Intention

There’s nothing inherently wrong with momentum. In fact, leaders need it. But momentum without intention often produces activity without alignment.

You can build quickly and still build poorly.

Early in the year, momentum has a way of masking misalignment. Everything feels fresh. Energy is high. Optimism is strong. But if the foundation is off—even slightly—that misalignment compounds over time.

Leadership isn’t shaped by one defining decision. It’s shaped by the small, early patterns that quietly become normal. What you allow in January becomes what you manage in June. What you excuse early becomes what you resent later.

Tone forms quietly.

Tone Forms Before You Realize It

Tone isn’t set in mission statements or kickoff meetings. It’s set in what you reinforce when no one is watching.

It’s set by:

• The conversations you delay

• The behaviors you overlook

• The pace you model

• The standards you quietly relax

Leaders often assume they’ll “address it later.” But later rarely arrives without cost. By the time something feels urgent, it’s usually already entrenched.

What you normalize early doesn’t stay small. It multiplies.

Early Patterns Matter More Than Big Moments

Leadership culture is not built through one big moment of clarity. It’s built through repeated patterns that slowly harden into expectation.

That’s why early decisions matter so much—not because they’re dramatic, but because they’re formative.

The tone you set at the beginning of the year quietly answers questions your team may never ask out loud:

• Is excellence expected, or just effort?

• Is rest valued, or only output?

• Is alignment more important than speed?

• Is character non-negotiable, or situational?

These answers are rarely spoken. They’re observed.

Creating the Future You Actually Want

Peter Drucker famously said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
That creation doesn’t happen through vision alone. It happens through tone.

Tone creates direction.

If leaders want a different outcome at the end of the year, they must be willing to shape different patterns at the beginning. Otherwise, the future simply becomes a faster version of the past.

This requires restraint. It requires intentional pauses when momentum begs you to accelerate. And it requires humility—the willingness to slow down long enough to ask uncomfortable questions about alignment.

A Scriptural Lens on Foundation

Scripture speaks directly to this idea of early alignment and foundation. Psalm 127:1 reminds us:

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
— Psalm 127:1, (ESV)

This isn’t a rejection of effort. It’s a warning about misplaced confidence.

You can build tirelessly. You can plan strategically. You can work relentlessly. And still labor in vain if alignment is missing.

For leaders, this verse isn’t about withdrawing from responsibility—it’s about ordering it. It’s about ensuring that what we’re building is anchored to the right foundation before momentum takes over. For Christians, that anchor is Jesus Christ. We don’t build without Him.

Activity vs. Alignment

Leadership often rewards activity. Alignment requires patience.

Activity feels measurable. Alignment feels slower. But alignment is what sustains leadership when pressure increases.

You can:

• Build quickly… or build wisely

• Move fast… or move aligned

• Gain momentum… or establish direction

The best leaders resist the false urgency of early momentum long enough to choose wisely.

Pause Before Speed

Before the year gains more momentum, there’s value in slowing down just enough to choose the tone.

Ask yourself:

• What am I allowing right now that I don’t want normalized?

• What pace am I modeling?

• What standards am I quietly communicating?

• What foundation am I building on?

These questions don’t stall leadership. They strengthen it.

Reflection

Leadership doesn’t drift all at once. It drifts early.

What you allow, prioritize, and tolerate quietly sets the tone for everything that follows. Before the calendar fills and the pace accelerates, choose the tone you want to live with—not just this month, but all year.

What Are You Creating in 2026?

What Are You Creating in 2026?

The opening weeks of a new year tend to pull leaders toward planning.
Goals. Strategies. Metrics. Initiatives.

None of those are bad things. But they are rarely where leadership actually begins.

Before there was a plan, before there was a command, before there was even a person to lead, there was creation.

Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

That single sentence doesn’t try to explain leadership. It simply reveals something about the nature of God—and, by extension, something about the nature of leadership itself. Leadership begins with intentional creation.

God didn’t start by giving instructions.
He started by making space.

Creation Before Command

One of the most overlooked leadership mistakes is assuming that clarity, motivation, or productivity should come first. In reality, those things emerge after something has already been created.

Before anything could grow, there had to be an environment where growth was possible. Before there could be purpose, there had to be order. Before there could be movement, there had to be space.

That’s true in creation—and it’s true in leadership.

Whether we realize it or not, leaders are always creating something. The question isn’t if you’re creating. It’s what you’re creating.

You’re creating culture.
You’re creating expectations.
You’re creating pace.
You’re creating emotional tone.
You’re creating space—or pressure.

Sometimes all at once.

Creativity Isn’t About Being Artistic

When we hear the word “create,” many leaders instinctively disqualify themselves.

“I’m not creative.”
“I’m not artistic.”
“That’s not really my gift set.”

But leadership creativity isn’t about imagination or innovation in the traditional sense.

It’s about design.

It’s about intentionally shaping the environment your team operates in—often through decisions that look small on the surface but carry significant weight over time.

You don’t need to be artistic to create clarity.
You don’t need to be imaginative to create rhythm.
You don’t need to be inspirational to create space.

You just need to be intentional.

The Environment Is the Message

Most leaders spend a lot of energy communicating expectations. Far fewer stop to consider the environment those expectations live in.

If a leader says, “We value excellence,” but the environment rewards speed over quality, the environment wins.

If a leader says, “We want people to grow,” but there’s no margin to learn or fail, the environment wins.

If a leader says, “We care about our people,” but the pace is relentless and unpredictable, the environment wins.

Creation always speaks louder than intention.

The systems you build, the rhythms you establish, and the space you allow communicate far more than any speech, meeting, or email ever could.

A Pause Worth Taking

As you move into 2026, before you finalize plans or launch initiatives, it’s worth slowing down long enough to ask a more foundational question:

What am I intentionally creating for my team to thrive?

Not what are you fixing.
Not what are you reacting to.
Not what are you pushing harder.

What are you creating?

A Few Questions to Sit With

Not as a checklist. Not as a framework. Simply as prompts.

• What have I created that helps my team know what matters most?

• What rhythms have I created that shape how work actually gets done?

• Where have I created space for people to think, grow, or recover?

• What kind of emotional or relational environment have I created?

• Where have I created ownership instead of dependency?

Even sitting with one of these honestly can be a meaningful starting point.

One Small, Intentional Step

You don’t need to redesign everything at once.

This week, choose one thing to create intentionally.

Leadership rarely changes through grand gestures. It changes through thoughtful creation, repeated over time.

Beginning Again

Genesis doesn’t begin with activity.
It begins with intention.

As leaders, we often feel pressure to do more. But sometimes the most faithful and effective leadership move is to pause long enough to create the conditions where others can truly flourish.

As you step into this year, consider:

What are you creating for your team to thrive in 2026?

Leadership That Multiplies

Strong leadership doesn’t stop with self-growth.
It moves outward — from self, to home, to others.

That’s where leadership multiplication begins.

Throughout the December Reset, we’ve talked about clarity, intentionality, and consistency. But leadership was never meant to end with personal improvement. Healthy leadership reproduces. It shapes others. It outlives the moment.

Your Team Rises to Your Example

One of the most important leadership truths I’ve learned is this:
Your team doesn’t rise to your intentions — they rise to your clarity, your consistency, and your example.

Good intentions don’t build leaders.
Clear expectations do.
Consistent modeling does.
Daily faithfulness does.

That’s why leadership multiplication always starts small.

Scripture captures this principle clearly:

“Whoever is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”
— Luke 16:10 (ESV)

Before leadership multiplies outward, it must be lived inwardly.

You See This Clearly in College Football

College football offers a powerful illustration of leadership multiplication.

Great coaches don’t just win games — they develop assistants who go on to lead programs of their own. Over time, you can trace entire coaching trees back to a single leader who invested deeply in others.

Their success isn’t just measured in championships.
It’s measured in how many leaders they’ve sent out.

That’s multiplication.

I’ve Seen This Play Out in My Own Life

I’ve seen this same pattern play out beyond the football field.

Leaders I once served with are now leading businesses, pastoring churches, and influencing people in meaningful ways. Different arenas. Same calling.

Leadership that multiplies isn’t loud.
It’s faithful.
It’s patient.
It’s intentional.

And often, you don’t see its full impact until years later.

As You Step Into 2026

As you step into 2026, it’s worth asking yourself a few honest questions:

• Who am I intentionally developing?

• Who will lead better because I invested in them?

• If my leadership ended today, what would remain?

Leadership that multiplies outlives the moment.
It leaves a legacy of people, not just results.

Bringing the December Reset Together

This week closes the December Reset series.

The final Study Guide brings all four weeks together — helping you reflect, integrate, and identify your One Word for 2026. It’s designed to help you step into the new year with clarity, intention, and purpose.

If you’re ready to bring it all together, you can download the Week 4 Study Guide here: