Personal Note

I’ve been thinking about 2026 for a while now, and one question keeps resurfacing for me.

It came up earlier this year at Live2Lead Sweden, when John Maxwell shared something deceptively simple. He said that most leaders spend their time asking, “How can I make my team better?” But the more powerful question is different.

“How can I become a better leader?”

That question stayed with me.

Because when leaders grow, teams are forced to respond. And when leaders don’t, teams plateau quietly.

This isn’t just theory for me.

Many years ago, at the beginning of my relationship with my wife, Florina, I was going through a period of intense personal growth. I was reading constantly. Listening to podcasts. Challenging my own assumptions.

At some point, we had a very uncomfortable conversation. I remember it clearly. It wasn’t elegant, and it probably wasn’t kind.

What I essentially said was this: “I’m not going to slow down. If we’re not growing together, we’re growing apart.”

That wasn’t about wanting to leave. It was about being honest with the direction I was moving in.

I’m grateful that she chose to grow with me. That’s not always how it goes. And it’s not how it goes in many leadership teams either.

Earlier this year, the leader of a consulting firm I work closely with shared something similar. He described how difficult it was to bring leadership development into his leadership team. Not everyone was equally open. Not everyone wanted to grow at the same pace.

And slowly, without anyone explicitly deciding it, the slowest willingness to grow set the pace for everyone else.

To avoid discomfort, the system adapted. And everyone else had to slow down.

This is where leadership gets uncomfortable.

Growth is not neutral. It creates tension.

And if that tension isn’t addressed deliberately, it doesn’t disappear. It just reshapes the system.

As leaders think about 2026, these are some of the questions I often share with them. Not as a checklist, but as a mirror.

• As I grow, is my team rising with me, or am I quietly outpacing the system around me?
• Have I created the clarity, structure, and expectations that make growth possible, or am I hoping people will simply adapt?
• Am I developing leaders, or am I managing capable people who still depend on me to move things forward?
• Do I have people who can take ownership and make decisions without constant escalation?
• Am I delegating at the level required by the leader I want to become, or at the level that feels safe today?
• Do I have the right people for the next version of what we’re building, not just the current one?
• And if someone cannot meet expectations even with clarity, support, and development, am I willing to face what that means?

These aren’t easy questions. They’re not meant to be.

Here’s a 1% Shift to sit with as the year closes:

Your strongest performers show you what’s possible. Your weakest tolerated performance shows you your leadership lid.

If every person on your team operated at the level of your top performer, outcomes would look very different.

The gap between those two points is not a motivation problem. It’s not a personality problem.

It’s a leadership responsibility.

As you plan for 2026, the most important work may not be refining the plan.

It may be deciding who you need to become, so the system you lead can actually carry what’s coming next.

Make 2026 your best year yet!

Florin

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P.S.

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