12/28/2025
As the year comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the leadership patterns I’ve seen repeatedly with CEOs and executive teams this year.
A few we can’t afford to take into 2026:
✨ Talking about strategy instead of making decisions
✨Confusing busyness with productivity
✨Treating accountability as punishment instead of clarity
✨Praising resilience while ignoring sustainability
✨Delaying decisions and overextending the teams closest to the work
These aren’t individual failures.
They’re systemic patterns.
Leadership in the next season will require more clarity, restraint, and courage, not more hustle. 💥
As the year comes to an end, I want to name 25 critical leadership patterns I observed while working with CEOs and executive who overextended themselves and in the process, overextended their teams and organizations. These are not surface-level issues.