Leadership Insights
Practice
At the start of a new year, it’s tempting to imagine a completely new version of ourselves: a leader who is calmer, clearer, more strategic, more measured. But leadership never changes through sweeping reinvention. It shifts through intention, by choosing a direction and taking one grounded step at a time. The year ahead isn’t asking you to become someone else—It’s inviting you to become a more deliberate version of who you already are.
This week, we’ll walk you through some ways to focus more intentionally on becoming the leader you want to be. Of course, we focus on leadership all year round, so that process will continue past the week, but here, we’ll offer some ways to practice intentionality in leadership, some questions to reflect upon, and some prompts for gathering feedback as you make incremental shifts toward who you want to be as a leader.
Pro Tip: Use Sophia, the AI leadership coach in your My Path in your Academic Impressions account to support your practice. We’ll have tips throughout the newsletter on how to use it effectively.
Practicing Intentionality in Your Leadership
Over the next week, here is one practice to try to build your skills in making intentional leadership choices.
Choose a Direction, Not a Destination
Leaders often define who they want to become as a fixed outcome (i.e., “I want to be strategic,” or “I want to be confident”). But intentional leadership starts by naming the direction they want to head in, and then moving toward it one step at a time.
Reframe by asking yourself: What trajectory do I want to set? Where do I want to be slightly better in 90 days? This reduces pressure and creates momentum. For instance, the statements above could be reframed to be, “I want to spend 10 minutes more per day on forward-thinking work,” or “I want to speak up in three meetings this week because I have more to contribute and I know my own perspective.”
Pro Tip: Use the Sophia, AI leadership coach, to help you reword your outcome statements into directions.
As you move into the new year, remember that becoming the leader you aspire to be is not about perfection, but about paying attention. Each small, intentional choice—each shift in direction, each practiced behavior, each moment you notice yourself responding differently—builds your leadership over time. Start with what feels doable this week, use your AI coach as a guide, and let this practice compound into meaningful change.
Reflection: Identify the Priorities That Will Shape Your Leadership This Year
As you think about the leader you’re becoming, take a moment this week to pause and look inward. Growth doesn’t start with doing more—it starts with noticing what matters most. Instead of setting resolutions or broad aspirations, reflect on the three leadership priorities that will guide your direction over the next few months. These aren’t goals to achieve but orientations: ways you want to show up, behaviors you want to practice, or habits that will help you move toward the leader you want to be.
To help you identify your three directional priorities, explore the following questions. You can use a trusted coworker or friend, a leadership coach, or take advantage of the AI leadership coach found in the My Path section of your Academic Impressions account:
- What moments from the past month revealed the kind of leader I want to be?
- Where did I feel out of alignment with the leader I’m becoming, and what does that tell me?
- Which leadership behaviors would make the biggest positive difference if I practiced them more intentionally?
- What do I want people to experience more of when they interact with me?
- If I could only strengthen one aspect of my leadership in the next 90 days, what would it be, and why?
- What do I need to let go of to make space for the leader I want to become?
Feedback: Invite Others to Reflect on Your Leadership
As you continue exploring the leader you’re becoming, this is a good moment to look outward. The people who work with you every day often see your emerging leadership more clearly than you do, especially through the lens of the Five Paths to Leadership®. Strengths in the Critical Thinker, Relator, Warrior, and Visionary paths may surface in how you clarify decisions, build trust, or articulate direction. Asking for feedback helps you to understand which paths are naturally strengthening and where intention can help you grow next.
Invite a few trusted colleagues to reflect with you using this question:
“When you think about the leader I’m growing into, what qualities or behaviors do you see emerging—and what’s one thing I could lean into more intentionally?”
You can deepen the conversation with prompts like:
- Which of the Five Paths feel strongest in how I’ve been showing up lately?
- Where do you see potential for me to grow if I were to focus more intentionally?
- What small shift in my behavior would positively impact how we work together?
Use this feedback to refine your leadership direction, and consider bringing these insights into a coaching conversation or into the AI leadership coach in your My Path to explore next steps.