As many organisations close out the financial year, the focus swings toward what’s next: what’s strategically most important into 2027, where we need to shift the business, how we lift capability, what we need from teams, what success looks like.
And then the goals, the KPI’s, the measures, the dashboards. It’s a season of WHAT.
What are we delivering?
What are we changing?
What are we prioritising?
What results do we need?
All important. All necessary.
The leadership question I want to add to the conversation - because it’s often the missing piece:
Where is the adaptive challenge for you in this?
In adaptive leadership terms, technical goals are the easy part: they’re often clear, measurable, and solved through expertise, plans, and execution. The adaptive work is different. It asks something of the leader - not just the organisation.
Because to lead all of this “WHAT,” the deeper question is:
How do you need to lead… not what do you need to lead?
When goals are bold and the environment is shifting, the constraint is rarely the strategy.
It’s the leadership capacity required to carry it.
So, as you lock in goals for the year ahead, pause and ask:
What needs to shift in you?
- If you’re asking for stronger accountability, do you need to become clearer and more consistent in what you expect and what you tolerate?
- If you’re asking for more innovation, do you need to become more comfortable with uncertainty, experimentation, and a few imperfect starts?
- If you’re asking for collaboration across silos, do you need to model trust-building, candour, and shared ownership, even when it’s slower at first?
- If you’re asking for higher performance, do you need to sharpen focus and protect attention so your team isn’t dragged into constant noise and reactivity?
This is the part many leaders skip. Not because they don’t care, but because it’s easier to set goals for the business than it is to set goals for yourself.
But if you keep leading from the same patterns, the same defaults, the same comfort zones… the organisation will follow. Even with the best strategy.
Your leadership is the lever. And adaptive change requires the lever to move.
So yes, set the goals. Set the KPI’s. Get clear on the deliverables.
Then choose one leadership shift that will enable everything else.
The most strategic question for you right now might well be: Who do I need to become to lead us there?
And if you’re serious about your leadership growth and want to explore what a meaningful stretch could look like, reach out. Let’s talk about possibilities.
#RealLeadership #LeadershipGrowth #Coaching #MichelleSalesLeadership