When I look back on 2025, it’s easy to point to the things we got right.
- We grew revenue by nearly 20%.
- We hit our budget despite losing 20% of our consulting capacity.
- We delivered great outcomes for clients, reflected in a 95% NPS.
On paper, it was an impressive year.
But if I’m honest, the overwhelming feeling wasn’t triumph, it was discombobulation.
We were busy, constantly, but not always in the ways that created the biggest impact.
The big lesson of 2025 was that we lacked a single, big, unifying goal.
Nearly all of our 12-month priorities were carry-overs from previous years:
finish this… complete that… tidy this…
There’s nothing wrong with those tasks, they matter. But they don’t ignite or unite. They don’t compel a team to stretch, challenge assumptions, or rally behind something meaningful.
We tinkered. We cleaned up. We refined. And in doing so, we inadvertently robbed ourselves of the clarity and momentum that come from pursuing one powerful, energising objective.
Looking back through our past strategic plans, the years with the biggest breakthroughs all had one defining characteristic: a clear, compelling goal that created gravitational pull.
In those years, we still got the small things done, but it was the big goal that created the lift.
This year, we worked incredibly hard… but the outcomes didn’t feel proportionate to the effort. That imbalance is a red-flag alert for any business: busy-ness is not progress. Busy-ness is hyperactivity. Useful if you want to burn excess energy, but disastrous if you are trying to do great work, especially the high-value, privileged, work our clients ask of us.
This past weekend, Naomi and I stepped out of the noise and into reflection and reset mode. With the help of an exceptional coach, Tim Dwyer, we worked through his Tolemy Map, a powerful framework for aligning purpose, strategy, and rhythm.
It was exactly the circuit breaker we needed.
We walked away clearer, lighter, and committed to making 2026 a year defined not by activity, but by intention.
A year with a big goal again.
A year of strategic choices, not inherited priorities.
A year where effort and impact realign.
Our commitment in 2026 is to return stronger, with focus, discipline, and renewed purpose.
Most importantly, we’re reconnecting deeply with the reason Focus HR exists: To create workplaces where people want to be.
Everything we choose to do (and not to do) will ladder up to that.
2025 gave us growth and wins to be proud of. But it also gifted us clarity about what truly drives momentum, impact, and fulfilment. And for that, I’m grateful.
Here’s to 2026: a year of intention, bold goals, and work that matters.