Right Leaders, Wrong Conditions | 2025 in Review
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”
My 2025 in a nutshell.
Loud headlines blaring. Luminous people building anyway.
And no matter the room, I kept finding the same truth:
Right leaders, wrong conditions.
We expect humans to be infinitely resilient
while our ecosystems stay fragile and under-designed.
So we strategized and reimagined...
In one room, founders and funders sat in a circle, mapping what “resilient capital” requires when volatility is the norm, not the exception.
In another, executives named the quiet cost of roles built for a different era, then chose to redesign the work and invest in the person.
Across continents, managers practiced saying hard things about power, culture, and performance without inciting collateral damage.
And in the midst of all the seriousness, we still found laughter.
Plenty of dancing. Voice-cracked renditions of Whitney-and-Michael-and-SWV.
The oxygen that only comes in communion.
As I close out this year and suit up for the next, my focus stays steady:
designing mission-driven ecosystems that absorb shocks
so leaders don’t have to.
Originally appeared on LinkedIN.
Let’s balance gravity and joy.
