12 Leadership Decisions That Will Shape Your Year

Strong leaders don’t drift into good years.
They decide — early — how they’ll lead.

Over time, I’ve noticed that leaders who experience clarity, health, and sustained influence don’t rely on motivation or momentum. They make intentional decisions before the year begins to move too fast.

Not resolutions.
Not goals.
Decisions.

John Maxwell puts it simply: “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” Leadership formation works the same way. Over time, our decisions shape our character, our influence, and the environments we lead.

Scripture reminds us that intentional leadership isn’t about control — it’s about alignment:

“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
— Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

Here are 12 leadership decisions that quietly shape the year ahead.

1. Decide What You Will Protect

Time, energy, health, and relationships don’t protect themselves. Without clear boundaries, leadership demands will slowly erode what matters most. Deciding what you will protect early in the year creates margin that sustains you when pressure increases.

2. Decide How Your Calendar Will Reflect Your Priorities

Your calendar reveals your real values, not your stated ones. Strong leaders don’t just react to requests — they intentionally schedule what matters most. When your priorities live on your calendar, they stop competing with everything else.

3. Decide How You Will Communicate Expectations

Many leadership frustrations aren’t people problems — they’re clarity problems. Deciding how and when you’ll communicate expectations reduces confusion and builds trust. Clear expectations give people confidence in how to win.

4. Decide How You Will Develop People

Leadership that lasts multiplies. Growth doesn’t happen accidentally — it happens through intentional coaching, feedback, and opportunity. Deciding who you’ll invest in ensures your leadership impact extends beyond your own capacity.

5. Decide What You Will Say “No” To

Focus requires restraint. Every “yes” carries a cost, whether you see it immediately or not. Deciding ahead of time what doesn’t belong in your year helps you preserve energy for what does.

6. Decide How You Will Handle Pressure

Pressure is inevitable in leadership, but panic is optional. Deciding in advance how you’ll respond under stress keeps emotions from driving decisions. Prepared leaders respond thoughtfully instead of reacting impulsively.

7. Decide How You Will Care for Your Health

Leadership is demanding, and neglect eventually shows up somewhere. Physical, emotional, and spiritual health directly affect how you show up for others. Deciding to care for your health isn’t selfish — it’s responsible leadership.

8. Decide How You Will Build Trust

Trust grows through consistency, integrity, and follow-through. Small, repeated actions shape credibility far more than big moments. Deciding to be dependable in both visible and unseen ways builds a foundation others can rely on.

9. Decide How You Will Course-Correct

Strong leaders don’t avoid adjustment — they expect it. Deciding now that feedback and correction are part of growth keeps pride from blocking progress. Course-correction is not failure; it’s leadership maturity.

10. Decide How You Will Finish the Year

Strong finishes don’t happen by accident. Deciding early how you want to close the year influences how you pace yourself throughout it. Leaders who finish well build momentum that carries forward.

11. Decide How You Will Measure Success

Busyness is not success, and visibility isn’t impact. Deciding what “winning” actually means protects you from chasing the wrong metrics. Clear measures of success bring focus and reduce unnecessary pressure.

12. Decide What You Will Carry Forward

Every year leaves something behind — habits, lessons, and patterns. Deciding intentionally what you’ll carry forward helps you build on growth instead of repeating mistakes. Reflection turns experience into wisdom.

Final Thought

You don’t need a perfect plan for the year ahead.
You need clarity.

Strong leadership starts with intentional decisions — and those decisions quietly shape everything that follows.

Start Strong. Lead Well.

Leadership Begins at Home: Why Presence Shapes Everything You Lead

There’s a leadership truth I’ve come to appreciate more deeply with every season of life:

Your leadership at home shapes your leadership everywhere else.

Home is the place where your values are lived, not just stated.
It’s where trust is formed, where emotional stability is either reinforced or eroded, and where the people closest to you experience the truest version of your leadership.

Home is the foundation you lead from.

At the center of that foundation is presence — not proximity, not perfection, but intentional presence.

Presence that adapts as seasons change, but never disappears.

This past year brought new rhythms into our home. Our oldest stepped into adulthood, and presence began to take a new shape. It became shared Bible studies through an app, encouraging messages, and phone calls across the distance.

At the same time, this season opened space for deeper connection with our younger son and more intentional support for my spouse.

Different rhythms.
Same calling.

Be present for the people who matter most.

Scripture captures this truth with quiet strength:

“In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence,
and his children will have a refuge.”
— Proverbs 14:26 (ESV)

That word refuge matters.

A refuge is not built in moments of intensity.
It’s built through stability.
Through consistency.
Through leadership that can be felt, not just heard.

This is where leadership at home becomes leadership everywhere else.

Patrick Lencioni says it well:
“Great teams are built on trust. So are great families.”

Trust doesn’t come from grand gestures or perfectly executed plans.
It grows through everyday choices — the tone you set, the attention you give, and the rhythms you create.

As we look toward 2026, here are three practices that help leaders strengthen their leadership at home — and, by extension, every other place they lead.

1. Be Present

Presence is your most powerful form of influence.

Not because you are always physically nearby, but because when you are present, you are engaged. Listening. Paying attention. Not distracted.

Presence communicates value.

At home, people don’t need flawless leadership.
They need leadership that shows up — consistently and intentionally.

Presence looks different in every season.

Sometimes it’s time around the table.
Sometimes it’s a conversation before bed.
Sometimes it’s a message sent across the distance just to say, “I’m thinking about you.”

What matters most isn’t the format.
It’s the intentionality behind it.

2. Create Rhythms

Strong families aren’t built on intensity.
They’re built on rhythms.

Small, repeatable moments that anchor connection.

Rhythms reduce uncertainty.
They create predictability, safety, and shared expectation.

A weekly meal.
A standing conversation.
A consistent check-in.
A shared practice.

These moments don’t need to be elaborate. In fact, the simplest rhythms are often the most powerful because they’re sustainable.

Over time, rhythms do something remarkable:
they make connection feel normal — not forced.

And that sense of stability becomes the emotional foundation your leadership rests on everywhere else.

3. Speak Life

Words carry weight — especially at home.

Encouragement isn’t about hype or flattery.
It’s about naming what matters, affirming growth, and reinforcing identity.

When leaders speak life at home, they help build resilience.
They remind their family who they are — even when circumstances are changing.

Encouraging words don’t ignore challenges.
They help people face them with confidence.

And when encouragement is consistent, it becomes a quiet strength others carry with them long after the conversation ends.

As you prepare for 2026, remember this:

Your leadership at home is part of your leadership story.

When your home is strengthened, your leadership everywhere else is steadied.

This week’s Study Guide is designed to help you:

• reflect on your current rhythms

• strengthen intentional presence

• and begin shaping patterns that will carry into the year ahead

👉 Download the Week 3 Study Guide and continue building your 2026 Leadership Guidepost.

Why Self-Leadership Shapes Every Other Sphere

December Reset Series • Part 2 of 4

There’s a quiet truth every leader eventually learns:

Some years you drift your way into January… and some years you lead your way into it.

I’ve lived both.

A few years ago, I ran half marathons regularly. I was disciplined, consistent, and focused. But over time, I drifted. What slipped in my physical life eventually showed up everywhere—in my energy, my mindset, and even in the way I led at home and at work.

That season taught me something I needed to remember:

Self-leadership is the foundation of every other kind of leadership.

Not the books you read.
Not the strategies you use.
Not the roles you hold.

Your private patterns—your habits, inputs, rhythms, and boundaries—shape the person who shows up publicly.

And drift?
Drift never stays in one area.
Strength doesn’t either.

Why January Isn’t the Beginning

For most people, the new year starts in January.
But for a leader, the new year begins long before the calendar turns.

Your intentions, your energy, your focus, and your disciplines in December quietly set your trajectory for the year ahead. If you’re not leading yourself well now, it’s unlikely that flipping a date on a calendar will change that.

That’s why this week of the December Reset Series focuses entirely on the first sphere of leadership:

Lead Myself.

Because everything else—
how you lead your family,
how you lead your team,
how you influence your world—
is shaped by the person you are becoming privately.

Proverbs 25:28 puts it this way:

“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” (ESV)

Self-control is not about restriction.
It’s about protection.
Strength. Stability. Clarity.

It builds the walls that support every other part of life.

Consistency Over Intensity

Most leaders overestimate the power of big moments and underestimate the power of small, daily ones.

A ten-minute habit practiced consistently will change your life more than a one-hour burst once a month.

Craig Groeschel says it this way: “Successful people do consistently what others do occasionally.”

And John Maxwell adds: “The toughest person to lead is always yourself.”

Consistency and self-leadership.
Those two themes shape everything.

Three Systems Every Strong Leader Builds

To strengthen your self-leadership, start with three systems:

1. Guard Your Inputs

Your mind eventually reflects whatever you feed it.

Most drift doesn’t begin with a major decision; it begins with subtle inputs we barely notice. What we watch, what we listen to, who we spend time with, and even the internal conversations we entertain—all of it shapes our thinking more than we realize.

Strong self-leadership starts with paying attention to the “gateway” of your life. Just like poor nutrition eventually weakens the body, poor inputs eventually weaken your leadership. The opposite is also true: when you feed your mind with truth, wisdom, stillness, and clarity, your leadership gains strength from the inside out.

Guarding your inputs isn’t about withdrawing from the world.
It’s about choosing what forms you.

2. Build Daily Rhythms

Small habits compound over time. The right ones change everything.

Most leaders underestimate the power of rhythm. We want breakthrough moments, but God often shapes us through steady, quiet practices done faithfully over time. A ten-minute reading habit, a short daily prayer, a nightly reflection, a morning walk—these don’t look dramatic, but they build spiritual, emotional, and mental muscle.

Daily rhythms carry us when motivation dips.
They keep us aligned when life gets loud.
They remind us who we are becoming.

Great leadership isn’t created in the big moments; it’s revealed in them.

But it’s built in the ordinary ones.

3. Stay Accountable

Isolation weakens leaders. Partnership strengthens them.

You can be incredibly gifted and still get stuck if you lead alone. Every leader has blind spots—places we don’t see clearly or drift more easily.

Accountability isn’t about people policing your life.
It’s about people supporting your growth.

The right relationships do three things:

• They remind you of your commitments.

• They help you see what you can’t see.

• They strengthen you when you feel discouraged or unfocused.

Isolation creates drift.
Relationship creates traction.

If you want to grow in self-leadership, don’t do it alone. Invite trusted people into the journey.

A Quiet Direction for the Year Ahead

As you pay attention to how you lead yourself, you’ll also begin noticing themes—words, ideas, invitations from God—that may shape your One Word for 2026.

We’ll explore that more in the weeks ahead, but this is where clarity begins.

Not in January.

Now.

Because strong self-leadership sets the direction for 2026.

Week 2 Study Guide (Free Resource)

To guide your reflection, I created a free study guide designed to help you:

• assess your current patterns

• identify areas of drift

• strengthen key habits and rhythms

• build one daily action for the week

• begin noticing themes that may shape your One Word for 2026

Click below to download the Week 2 study guide and continue building your 2026 Leadership Guidepost.

Closing Thought

The greatest gift you can give your family, your team, and the people you lead… is a healthy, grounded, consistent you.

Start there.
Lead there.
Build from there.