304. Designing 2026 with Intention: Leadership, Life, and Alignment with Mick Spiers

A new year doesn’t need a louder pep talk; it needs a clearer compass. We start 2026 by trading resolutions for direction and building a plan around identity, not intensity. Through honest reflection on 2025—what made us proud and what quietly drained us—we sketch a practical framework to design a year you’ll be proud to live, not just survive.

We walk through four anchors that hold everything in place: health and energy, leadership and impact, craft and learning, and family and life. For health, we focus on consistency and recovery so progress compounds without burnout. For leadership, we commit to showing up authentically—coaching more than controlling, preparing for meetings with intention, and closing each day with a five-question reflection that checks whether we acted in line with our values. For craft, we go for depth over volume: fewer projects, fully finished, and psychology learning translated into actionable tools. For family, we protect presence with simple rituals and honest capacity, so the people closest to us experience our attention, not our leftovers.

Two levers make the whole system work: time and autonomy. Guard them and your habits stick; lose them and everything drifts. We close with a challenge: define your anchors, choose habits that survive low‑motivation days, and decide what you’ll say no to so your yes actually counts. Along the way, we preview upcoming conversations on emotional leadership, behavior change, and clear communication, plus a new Lead Better video series turning practical psychology into tools you can use.

If this resonated, subscribe, share it with someone who needs a reset, and tell us your 2026 anchors. What will you build by design this year?

Chapters

• 0:01 Direction Over Motivation
• 1:08 Honest Reflection On 2025
• 3:17 What Drained Your Energy
• 4:18 Define Who You’ll Become
• 4:49 Anchor One: Health And Energy
• 7:14 Consistency Beats Intensity
• 8:03 Anchor Two: Authentic Leadership
• 10:02 Daily Planning And Reflection Habits
• 12:09 Anchor Three: Craft And Learning
• 13:40 Anchor Four: Family And Life
• 15:05 Time, Autonomy, And Saying No
• 16:10 What’s Ahead On The Podcast

Transcript

Mick Spiers: 0:01

So there you have it, in a blink of an eye, it's 2026. Now before we start talking about goals, before we talk about habits, before we talk about performance, I want to start with a quieter question. As you begin 2026, ask yourself this. Do I actually know what direction I'm heading in? Or am I just hoping momentum carries me somewhere good? Because motivation isn't the real problem at the start of a new year. Direction is. In our final episode of 2025, we slowed down and looked back. We asked, how far have I really come? What did I handle this year that would have crushed me a few years ago? Well, today is the next step. This isn't a hype episode, it's not about resolutions, and it's definitely not about trying to reinvent yourself overnight. This is about designing 2026 with intention. So that when you reach the end of this year, you don't just feel busy, you feel aligned. Hey everyone, and welcome back to season six of the Leadership Project and Happy New Year. Welcome to 2026. This feels like it's come in a blink of an eye. 2025 is behind us, and we're already into 2026. And what we'll be doing today is designing 2026 with intention so that you can be proud of who you become by the end of this year. So let's get into it. Let's start with some honest reflection. Let me invite you into this first question. When you think about 2025, what genuinely made you proud? Not what looks good on paper, not what you should be proud of, but what actually matters to you. For me, a few things stand out immediately. I'm proud that I returned to running. Even when the beginning felt very uncomfortable, it wasn't easy. Had to be patient with myself. I had to stick to the plan. And even then, when I pushed faster than I should have, I got injured. And I learned that lesson the hard way. But I didn't quit. I found my rhythm again. I'm also proud of moments of leadership, especially the quiet ones. Messages from people saying thank you when I help them through tricky situations. Those moments matter more than titles ever will. I'm proud of reaching 300 episodes of the Leadership Project Podcast and for having you on this journey with us. And of the feedback from guests about feeling seen, heard, and genuinely listened to. And I'm deeply proud of how I showed up for Thomas, my son. Despite a busy schedule, I made space because he genuinely craves quality time and I've honored that. So now to you. When you think of 2025, what are you genuinely proud of? Take a moment, you can pause the podcast and write down a few notes or just take some mental notes if you wish. Now, the next question takes some real courage. What drained you in 2025? What quietly took more energy than it gave back? For me, this was much harder to admit. The emotional weight of family responsibility. I felt like I was the one that had to hold things together when both Say and Thomas were unwell this year. I was wanting to do it all, there was no question about that, but I was also feeling exhausted by it at the same time. At work there were also moments where I felt pushed into leadership behaviors that weren't authentic to who I am. And that didn't sit well with me. This honesty matters because you cannot design a good year if you ignore the truth about the last one. So take the time now to think about what drained you in 2025, and it may help you to frame how you're going to show up in 2026. Which moves us on to the next reflection. If 2026 goes well, how are you showing up differently? Not what did you achieve, it's about who did you become. So I want you to pause for a moment and ask yourself what are the few areas that really matter in this season of your life? For me, the four anchors are really clear. Anchor one is health and energy. Anchor 2, leadership and impact. Anchor 3, craft and learning. And anchor four, family and life. Let's unpack these one at a time. You don't have to have the same anchors, of course, but go on this journey with me. Let's go with anchor one, health and energy. Ask yourself this. If my health and energy were strong by the end of 2026, what would be different day to day? For me, the answer isn't a number on the scales. It's identity. Consistency. About reframing the story that I tell myself about myself in my own mind. The identity that I want is one that shows up consistently for training and recovery. And that the outcomes will follow naturally. The weight loss, hopefully finishing two half marathons and eventually a marathon without recurring injury. They're the outcomes. But the identity is the consistency. So my commitment isn't intensity, it's consistency. To follow the plan, not to improvise, and respect recovery. So the identity I'm going to be living by is the person that shows up every day, that puts in the work, and that sticks to the plan. And if I fall off one day and things don't go to plan, that I get straight back onto the plan the next day and show resilience, that I don't give up when I have a bad day. Because there's going to be bad days. There's no such thing as a perfect year where everything goes to plan every single day. But those that have consistency are able to get back on to the plan immediately. So come back to yourself. Health and energy. If your health and energy were strong by the end of 2026, what would be different day to day? Not what do you look like in a year's time? What are the daily habits? What is the identity of how you're going to show up day to day if your health and energy was going to be strong by the end of 2026? Remember this. Going to the gym or exercising once does not make you fit and strong. It needs to be consistency over time. That's where real change happens. Equally, eating a bad meal, a burger or pizza once doesn't make you unhealthy. It also comes back to consistency when it comes to things like nutrition. Are you having more bad meals than you're having good meals, or are you having more good meals than you're having bad meals? It's that consistency that builds up over time. So think about your identity and what it will look like. What's the story that you tell yourself about yourself when it comes to health and energy and how are you going to stick to it on a consistent basis? Right, let's move to anchor two. For me, it's leadership and impact. Remember, you choose your own anchors. Ask yourself this from a leadership perspective. What does authentic leadership look like for you? Not for someone else, for you. For me, leadership means protecting my own leadership style. One that's based on empowering and trusting my team, coaching instead of controlling, and creating environments where people feel seen, heard, valued, and capable of doing their very best. My leadership style is influenced by ideas from people like Michael Bungastania and the coaching habit, Liz Wiseman and her work in multipliers, and deep listening from the likes of Otto Sharmer. But two simple habits support this for me. First, for every morning or the night before, I look at my calendar and ask, how do I need to show up in each of the meetings that's scheduled for the next day? Do I need to be curious? Do I need to be present? Do I need to be in coach mode? Do I need to be inspirational? In some cases, do I need to be directional? This is what situational and adaptive leadership is all about. So looking ahead at my calendar and thinking about each meeting and thinking about what does success look like. If this meeting is successful, it could be a one-on-one through to a team meeting, through to a presentation. What does success look like? And how do I need to show up for that meeting? Second, I will finish each day with a short reflection. Now, a lot of you know that I've been doing this now for what's going on for 12 years or 13 years now. I've been doing a daily reflection exercise where I ask myself the same five questions. What went well? What didn't go well? What would I do differently next time? What did I learn about myself? And what did I learn about others? Well, this year I'm going to put a little twist on it. Because of this authenticity that I'm looking for, I'm going to ask, well, was I authentically myself today? Where did I drift? How did I actually show up? Did I show up in the way that I intended? So the key word for me on leadership of impact this year is authentic leadership and staying true to myself and to stop myself being thrust into a leadership style that isn't true to myself. So what is it for you? What does authentic leadership look like for you? And how are you going to build that into your leadership practice this year? Right, anchor three. Anchor three for me is craft and learning. And what I asked myself this time is what kind of builder or learner do I want to become this year? I really think that everyone should have some kind of learning anchor in their plan. Lifelong leaders are lifelong learners, and if we're not learning, we're going backwards. So for me, this is about depth. It's about structured psychology learning, thinking time, writing time, working on my next book, and being able to synthesize what I learn and put it into practice. So I'll be doing fewer projects, but I'll be finishing them properly. So my learning goal this year is about applied psychology, taking what I'm learning about psychology and converting it into actionable insights that I follow, but also that I can share with you, the audience. What is it for you? What do you want to learn this year? By the end of 2026, is there a new skill that you want to have mastered? Is there a new set of knowledge that you have been putting off and this is a year that you're going to follow through? Is it a course that you've always thought about, but you've never actually enrolled in or completed? Anchor 4 is family and life. And this is not anchor for because it's the last one, it's the anchor for because it's the most important one. Now let's pause on this one. Ask yourself this question. If the people closest to me described how I showed up in 2026, what would I want them to say? For me, this is about presence. It's about protected family rituals. Weekly rhythms that don't get sacrificed when work gets busy. And being honest about capacity. Because leadership at work means very little if you're depleted at home. So there's going to be an element of energy management here so that when I'm with my family, I'm fully present. My phone is away, my laptop is away, my iPad is away, and when I'm with Thomas or I'm with Say, then I'm 100% there. And making sure I've managed my energy so I can do that. So what is it for you? If the people closest to you describe how you showed up in 2026, what would you want them to say? And what are you going to do to make that happen? So what's the real lever here? Across all four anchors, two things really stood out for me. These are my personal anchors. That is time and the management of time, and autonomy. When those are protected, I'm at my best. When they're not, everything suffers. So for 2026, it's not about doing more. For me, it's about building and stabilizing intentionally. So let's bring this back to you. As you start 2026, ask yourself these questions. What are your anchors? What does good actually look like for you this year? What systems will support that even when motivation fades? And what are you willing to say no to to protect the things that you say yes to? Because leadership and life aren't built through heroic sprints, they're built through small, consistent decisions and habits. Now, what's coming up this year on the podcast? Well, we're going to go deeper into exactly this work. We're going to have conversations with people like Bill Benjamin on leading in emotionally charged moments. How do you show up in those moments? Hugh Thomas on what exactly drives behavior change. And Salvatore Manzi on clear and compelling communication. And very soon we're going to be recording and publishing a new video series called Lead Better, focused on practical psychology for leaders. Building on my learning goal, it's about converting that knowledge of psychology and human behavior and converting it into actionable insights that you can follow. So as we begin 2026, leave yourself with this question. Am I living by default or by design? I'm really looking forward to walking into this year with you, learning together, leading together, and building lives and teams we're proud of. If this episode helped, share it with someone who needs a reset, not a lecture. And I'd love to hear from you. What are your anchors for 2026? Send us an email or contact us at the show and let us know what you're looking to achieve in 2026. And more importantly, who are you looking to become? You've been listening to the Leadership Project. If today sparked an insight, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with one other person who would benefit from listening to the show. A huge thank you to Gerald Calibo for his tireless work editing every episode. And to my amazing wife Sei, who does all the heavy lifting in the background to make this show possible. None of this happens without them. Around here we believe leadership is a practice, not a position. That people should feel seen, heard, valued, and that they matter. That the best leaders trade ego for empathy, certainty for curiosity, and control for trust. If that resonates with you, please subscribe on YouTube and on your favourite podcast app. And if you want more, follow me on LinkedIn and explore our archives for conversations that move you from knowing to doing. Until next time, lead with curiosity, courage, and care.