Which Leader Were You This Year? Five Wins Worth Celebrating Before You Step Into 2026

If 2025 felt like a marathon, you’re not imagining it.

Leaders across every sector (tech, schools, nonprofits, high-growth companies), were navigating more complexity, more acceleration, and more AI-driven change than ever before.

And still, you showed up.

Not always perfectly. Not always gracefully. But with intention, grit, and a willingness to grow. (Which, frankly, is the real work of leadership.)

Here’s something I want you to hear clearly: You grew more this year than you think.

Because leadership growth isn’t loud. It rarely announces itself. It shows up in the micro-moments:

• the decision you made with more clarity,
• the conversation you handled with more composure,
• the boundary you held,
• the meeting you ran with actual purpose,
• the workflow you reimagined because AI opened a smarter door.

Those small shifts add up. They shape how your team experiences you. And they reveal who you’re becoming as a leader.

When I look back at the extraordinary leaders I coached this year, these moments weren’t random. They pointed to something bigger: five distinct leadership muscles that kept showing up again and again.

Different leaders, different industries…but the same patterns of growth. And you may see yourself in one. Or all five.

1. The Clarity Builder
You cut through noise and led with intention.

This year, clarity became leadership oxygen. Leaders stopped treating it as a luxury and started treating it as a responsibility.

I saw CTOs block two hours a week for actual thinking time. Heads of school rewrite meeting structures that were draining their teams. CEOs stop reacting to every fire and start directing the energy instead of absorbing it.

This wasn’t glamorous. But it was transformational.

When you lead with clarity, your team stops guessing and starts moving.

2. The Courageous Communicator
You had the conversations you used to avoid.

Let’s be honest: Courageous communication is emotional labor.

It’s the knot-in-your-stomach email. The “we need to realign expectations.” The feedback moment you’d prefer to postpone…indefinitely.

But this year, I watched leaders lean in with humanity and precision.

They didn’t steamroll. They didn’t sugarcoat. They modeled what relational leadership actually looks like.

And their cultures strengthened for it.

3. The Trust Maker
You delegated real ownership and let people rise.

For many leaders, this was the year of releasing control of perfectionism, over functioning, and “I’ll just do it myself.”

But when leaders learned to hand off not just tasks, but ownership? Teams stepped up.

I watched tech directors create space for principals to lead tech-forward decisions. I saw VPs empower new managers to own their lanes. I saw executives reclaim energy by trusting their teams to run with projects.

Trust isn’t soft. It’s a discipline. And this year, you practiced it.

4. The Change Navigator
You led through uncertainty without losing your center.

Between economic shifts, staffing turbulence, cultural expectations, and the relentless pace of AI, change wasn’t a moment. It was the environment.

The leaders who did well weren’t the ones with perfect plans. They were the ones who stayed anchored.

They named reality without dramatizing it. They communicated consistently. They returned to their values when the ground felt shaky.

Change navigation isn’t about having answers. It’s about showing up steady.

5. The AI-Ready Leader
You upgraded your mindset, skills, and workflows for an AI-powered world, without losing your humanity.

AI is no longer optional. But being AI-ready doesn’t mean becoming a technologist. It means being adaptive, discerning, and grounded as the pace of work accelerates.

This year, I watched leaders:

• Use AI to eliminate unnecessary lift
• Redesign workflows for clarity and efficiency
• Lean into the human skills AI can’t replicate, like judgment, empathy, and communication
• Stop treating AI as a threat and start treating it as a leadership tool

Here’s the truth: as AI gets louder, your humanity becomes your edge.

AI-forward leaders aren’t the ones with the fanciest tools. They’re the ones with clear judgment, strong boundaries, and zero ego about evolving.

Your Leadership Wins Count. All of Them.

Maybe you see yourself clearly in one of these. Maybe you touched all five at different moments. Maybe one is calling you forward for next year.

Wherever you fall, it matters. It matters to your team. It matters to your culture.

It matters to the version of yourself stepping into 2026.

Your Challenge for Your Year Ahead

Before you rush into January, ask yourself: Which version of you needs strengthening in 2026?

You don’t need a new personality next year. You need a stronger practice. And you don’t have to build it alone.

Whether you’re ready to deepen clarity, lead better conversations, strengthen team trust, design a more resilient culture, or build your confidence as an AI-ready leader, there’s a pathway we can build together.

2026 will reward the leaders who can evolve quickly and stay deeply human.
You’re closer to that leader than you think.

Denise Musselwhite is an unshakable optimist who believes in a future where leaders thrive authentically and courageously. She is dedicated to empowering diverse professionals to reclaim their power, harness their strengths, and break through the barriers—both systemic and self-imposed—that hold them back.

As a visionary executive coach, speaker, and strategist, Denise founded Tech & Thrive to bridge the gap between ambition and achievement, particularly for women and people of color in tech leadership. Her T.H.R.I.V.E. Operating System™ is more than a framework—it’s a movement designed to help leaders rise with clarity, confidence, and impact.

Denise’s mission is clear: to help high-achieving professionals show up fully as themselves, lead with purpose, and build careers and workplaces that honor their unique strengths, whether that’s through her leadership coaching or her partnerships with AIIR Consulting, Mission and Data, and Shore Coaching to deliver exceptional, data-informed leadership and team development rooted in authenticity. Because when we lead from a place of authenticity, we don’t just succeed—we thrive.