12 Leadership Decisions That Will Shape Your Year
Strong leaders don’t drift into good years — they decide their way into them. Leadership isn’t shaped by bold resolutions, but by quiet, consistent decisions about what we protect, prioritize, and practice. These twelve leadership decisions will help you step into 2026 with clarity, intention, and purpose.
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
Your leadership at home becomes the emotional foundation you lead from everywhere else. Strengthen the rhythms inside your home, and you strengthen every other part of your leadership.
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.