December 30, 2025

Good morning and Happy New Year. The beauty of the New Year is possibility and hope. The sad reality is that the process many use in the hope of change yields disappointment. This Thursday’s Leadership Insight is the last in our series on leadership presence. In past articles in this series, we have focused on what followers really want from those who lead them: presence. In this final article of the series, we are going to flip the script and look at leaders and what they really want, in the holiday season and beyond. John Maxwell often says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” To fully develop one’s leadership presence, one must develop oneself. Leaders develop from the inside out, and as I recently heard in a podcast, Lead Every Day by Mark Miller and Randy Gravitt, “better humans make better leaders. ” This concept reminds me of Warren Bennis’s thought that developing as a leader is essentially the same as growing as a person. Precisely that simple and difficult.” What leaders really and desperately need in this holiday season and beyond is to give themselves to slow down and intentionally begin the new year with a P.A.U.S.E., ditch resolutions for  S.M.A.R.T. goals, and a One Word focus.

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences and failing to achieve anything meaningful.”

Margret Wheatly

2025 is coming to a close fast. We are inundated with shows that encapsulate a media source’s version of the year’s most important events and ask, ‘ Where are we going? ‘ This is not a bad thing yet, for leaders, while looking back is essential to learning, it is only part of the learning. All effective leaders focus on moving forward. Forward motion is crucial to the vitality of one’s leadership practice. Tim Novak, Maxwell Leadership Faculty, highlighted this thought in a recent Maxwell Executive Program presentation. Tim reported he had just gotten his car back from the shop, and as he was driving home, he had a thought about looking at the new year .” A driver has three sets of mirrors available to scan the world. A small rearview mirror, two side mirrors, and a wide front windshield screen. The small rearview mirror provides a view of the past, shrinking as we move forward. Side mirrors provide a view of unexpected possibilities coming up Fast, and a wide, expansive front windshield shows a moving picture of the possibilities moving forward. This creates three questions for any leader.

Many think of change in the new year. It is a frequent topic that many a person will ask, “What are your New Year’s resolutions? Developing a set of New Year’s resolutions sounds like a good idea. Yet, although New Year’s resolutions promise a lot, they rarely deliver the lasting change anyone wants, especially leaders and teams who truly need it. Fitness platform Strava found that activity and motivation drop sharply by mid-January, so predictably, the second Friday in January is now called “Quitter’s Day.”In one analysis of hundreds of millions of activities, Strava identified January 9 as the day most people abandon their New Year fitness resolutions, while broader surveys show only about 1 in 5 adults entirely keep their resolutions into February.Other estimates suggest that roughly 80–88% of people break their resolutions, which is why many leadership experts, such as Jon Gordon, John Maxwell, and others, encourage abandoning long resolution lists in favor of a more straightforward, more sustainable process.

Resolutions fail not because people are weak, but because the system is vague, overloaded, and disconnected from identity and reality.” Like, I will swim a 20-minute mile in two weeks, even though you haven’t been to the pool since November. ” Well-intentioned yet doomed to failure, leaders especially need something more profound and systematic than another list they will feel guilty about by the second Friday in January. ” The most powerful gift a leader can give themselves and those they lead in their  2026 leadership presence is permission to P.A.U.S.E. and build S.M.A.R.T. goals around a single, clarifying One Word focus.

A Better Path: P.A.U.S.E

Instead of rushing into 2026 with hurried or overly sentimental resolutions, a leader can create a lasting leadership presence through a P.A.U.S.E. that shapes who you are before it dictates what you do. This kind of pause is not passivity; it is a strategic leadership move that fuels clarity, courage, and consistency.Leadership expert Juliet Funt refers to this as an intentional choice to slow down and create “White Space” to think and reflect on where we have been, what is going on around us, and where we need to go. One potential guide is to P.A.U.S.E.

Here is a refreshed P.A.U.S.E. for 2026:

• P – Persistent: Commit to keep showing up, even after the mid-January slump, resisting the Quitter’s Day pattern by giving oneself permission to stop and think.
• A – Authentic: Align goals with your values and identity your picture moving forward instead of chasing someone else’s metric of success. Leadership expert  Harry Kraemer argues this process is central to “values-based leadership.”
• U – Use Silence/Solitude Step away from noise to reflect, pray, think, and notice what is really happening in you and around you, what Daniel Sih and other productivity thinkers, such as Juliet Funt, call creating space for wisdom, not just activity.
• S – Simple: Strip away complexity so you can focus on a few critical priorities that actually move the needle.
• E – Empathize and Encourage: Out of your pause, return to those you lead with sharper listening, clearer expectations, and more generous encouragement, strengthening engagement and trust.

John Maxwell teaches that leadership is influence and that leaders “must give up to go up,” which includes giving up hurry, image management, and overcommitment so you can be fully present with those you serve. Mark Miller emphasizes that high-performance leaders continually invest in their growth and presence, confronting reality with both results and relationships in view. Kraemer adds that regular reflection is non-negotiable for staying grounded and values-driven in turbulent times.

The message from all these leadership experts is that taking time to P.A.U.S.E. is a continual process in one’s leadership, whether in a long retreat or in everyday practice. It allows leaders to continually practice and become the kind of leader who is looking at all three mirrors.

One way to put the learning from P.A.U.S.E. into action planning is through S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Traditional S.M.A.R.T. goals are often defined as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. For 2026, consider a slightly reframed leadership version:

• S – Simple: One clear behavior or practice, not ten.
• M – Measurable: Evidence you can see or track in your calendar, conversations, or key metrics.
• A – Achievable and Accountability‑Based: Goals sized to your season, with a person or process that keeps you honest.
• R – Realistic: Grounded in your capacity, context, and constraints, not fantasy.
• T – Timely: Linked to clear time frames (daily, weekly, quarterly) so progress can be reviewed and adjusted.

The final step is focus.

Much as a driver focuses on where they are headed in their vehicle, a lead needs a focal point for themselves and the organization

Jon Gordon’s One Word That Will Change Your Life provides such a model of focus. He suggests that, instead of a dozen resolutions, you prayerfully or reflectively choose one Word as your focus for the year—such as “Presence,” “Courage,” “Steward,” or “Connect.”

That One Word then becomes:

• A filter for your S.M.A.R.T. goals (“If my word is ‘Presence,’ what simple, measurable habits will embody that?”).
• A mirror for your leadership presence (“Does how I show up today reflect my word?”).

Maxwell talks about “intentional living” and daily disciplines; a One Word focus provides the through‑line for those daily choices. Mark Miller’s work on “smart leadership” highlights the power of clarity and focus to awaken greatness in leaders and teams, a power that a single word can practically reinforce.

How the Process Can Unfold

Here is one way this 2026 P.A.U.S.E. + S.M.A.R.T. + One Word process might unfold over the next few weeks:

1.                 Prepare Your Heart (Silence/Solitude)

·       Block 60–90 minutes alone with a journal, without screens, to review 2025: What gave life? What drained it? Where did you grow up? Where did you drift?

·       Ask Harry Kraemer’s kind of reflection questions: Did your calendar match your stated values? Did your leadership presence reflect what you say matters most?

2.                 Discover Your One Word

·       Use Jon Gordon’s simple three-step process: prepare your heart (eliminate noise), look inward at themes and desires, and look upward for clarity on the Word that is “for you” this year.

·       When one Word keeps rising—”Presence,” “Courage,” “Listen,” “Trust,” “Healthy”—receive it as your focus, not as a slogan.

3.                 Translate One Word into S.M.A.R.T. Goals

·       For your word “Presence,” for example, you might set one Simple goal in each domain:

·       Personal: No phone during family dinners, five nights a week (Measurable, Realistic, Time-bound).

·       Team: Weekly 15-minute one-to-ones focused on listening, not updates (Achievable, Accountability-based with a schedule).

·       Keep each goal small enough that, as James Clear and others note, you can repeat it consistently until it becomes part of your identity, not just effort.

4.                 Build an Accountability Loop

·       Share your Word and 2–3 S.M.A.R.T. goals with a trusted colleague, coach, or mentor and invite honest feedback and check-ins.

·       Remember that Mark Miller’s research and practice emphasize that leadership growth accelerates in community, not isolation.

5.                 Review and Adjust (Beat Quitter’s Day)

·       Mark your calendar for the week of Quitter’s Day (the second Friday in January, January 9 in 2026) as a built-in review, not a surrender.

·       Ask: What’s working? What’s not? What do I need to simplify, scale back, or reframe to make this sustainable? As Strava’s own data-driven insights suggest, revising the goal is not quitting; it is wise adaptation.

John Maxwell often reminds leaders to “evaluate every day” so experience becomes evaluated experience that leads to growth. Kraemer and others similarly insist that reflection and adjustment are what keep leaders aligned and effective over time.

As you begin 2026, the invitation is simple and strong: ditch the guilt-producing resolutions, embrace a leadership P.A.U.S.E., and design S.M.A.R.T. goals that match who you are becoming. Choose your One Word for continual, intentional focus. Then review, adjust, and keep going—long after Quitter’s Day has come and gone.

The Leadership Question for you then is :

1. Will you choose to P.A.U.S.E Use S.M.A.R.T.Goals all with a one-word focus for your leadership practice?