Happy new year! 

Every January, leaders are encouraged to set resolutions, be optimistic, and start the year with energy.  That advice is comfortable. It is also dangerously inadequate for what lies ahead.

2026 will not be a gentle year.  It will test judgement, stamina, and leadership maturity in ways many executives have not previously experienced.

This is the year to adandon wishful thinking and focus on reality. 

In this month's newsletter:

➕ Read more on the challenges and opportunities 2026 holds for leaders in our latest blog piece

➕  Explore our Customer-Focused Leadership Academy and find out how your organisation could benefit

➕  Hear more about our new way of working at Defy Expectations

We've changed the way we work this year.

All leadership work now begins with Leadership Defined so organisations have clarity before investing in coaching or development. If leadership decisions are on your agenda, this may be useful.

Leadership Defined is a structured, evidence-led diagnostic that shows how leadership is currently operating, not how it's intended to.

It provides clarity on:

• leadership strengths and constraints
• decision-making patterns under pressure
• readiness for scale, change, or increased responsibility
• where leadership effort is helping or hindering results

This is the foundation of everything that follows.

 Most organisations say they are customer-focused.  Far fewer have leaders who are consistently equipped to make that focus real in day-to day decisions.

At Defy Expectations, we see the same tension across sectors: leaders understand the importance of customers, but face competing priorities, internal complexity and delivery pressure that make customer-centric leadership difficult to sustain.  

The Customer-Focused Leadership Academy was created to address that gap.

This six-month programme helps leaders build the mindset, capability and practical discipline required to embed customer focus into how teams operate. Not as a slogan, but as a leadership standard. Through eight structured modules, participants explore how to use insight more effectively, remove friction across journeys, align teams around shared customer outcomes, and translate intent into consistent action.

If you’re looking to strengthen leadership capability and create sustainable, customer-led change across your organisation, the Academy provides a clear, practical starting point.

Register for more information to explore how the Customer-Focused Leadership Academy could work for your organisation.