We Made Some Promises About Leadership in 2025

A Year On, Here’s What We’ve Noticed

January 2026

At the start of 2025, we didn’t publish leadership predictions… Instead, we made a few promises about what leadership would demand — and what might help leaders keep showing up well.

A year later, it feels worth pausing to ask:

How did those promises hold up in practice?

Here’s our honest reflection — shaped by what we’ve actually seen “in the room” as coaches and facilitators.

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Promise 1

Leaders would need to keep two promises at once — the explicit and the implicit

What we expected

Commercial pressure would increase, and people would expect more from their leaders personally — clarity, trust, meaning, genuine presence.

What we saw

The leaders who made progress didn’t try to do more. They simplified. They went closer to the one or two patterns of behaviour that most shaped how they show up under pressure.

Values stopped being something leaders talked about and became something people read and felt through behaviour, decisions, and tone.

How did we do?

This tension showed up everywhere — and it took courage to handle it.

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Promise 2

Pressure would tempt leaders to “play not to lose”

What we expected

Market pressure would push leaders towards safety, control, and risk-management rather than purpose and direction.

What we saw

The leaders who really developed didn’t become bolder — they became freer.

They let go of habits rooted in past success, noticed their reactivity sooner, and gave themselves just enough space to choose how to respond.

Their work wasn’t dramatic. It was deliberate.

How did we do?

Pretty accurately — and more quietly than we anticipated.

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Promise 3

Performance would still matter

What we expected

Connection alone wouldn’t be enough. Leaders would need to hold performance standards and relationships at the same time.

What we saw

Performance shifted when leaders stopped transmitting and started interpreting — between roles, disciplines, expectations, and pressures. Small behavioural experiments often created disproportionate impact.

Standards didn’t drop. They became easier to hold.

How did we do?

Yes — performance followed behaviour, not pressure.

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Promise 4

AI would matter — but leadership would still live “in the gaps”

What we expected

Technology would only help if it freed leaders for human work.

What we saw

The biggest leadership shifts came from space — to notice patterns, choose responses, and have better conversations. AI helped when it created that space. It got in the way when it filled it.

Leadership still showed up in pauses and informal moments – “the gaps”.

How did we do?

Still standing by this one.

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So… How Did We Do Overall?

Better than we expected in some places.More slowly than we hoped in others.

Across different leaders, sectors, and contexts, the same themes kept repeating:

• Simplicity over sophistication

• Interpretation over transmission

• Congruence and intention

• Experimentation following insight

• Slowing down to speed up

We’re not making a new list of promises for 2026.The old ones still stand — they’ve just been road-tested now.

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A question to carry into 2026

If there’s one thing worth pausing with as the year starts, it might be this:

What is the pattern in how you show up under pressure that you’ve normalised — and others feel?

And what would change if you adjusted it just a little?

That feels like honest leadership work.

And it feels like enough to be getting on with.

A belated Happy New Year….