Our 2025 Leadership Lesson? Less Optics, More Shared Agency
For The Nelson Pages, our 2025 theme for the year was clear:
Leadership that works today is less about control, optics, or checklists—and more about care, clarity, and shared agency in messy, real conditions.
Each newsletter we launched this year pushed our readers to replace “performing leadership” with practices that help people make meaning, stay engaged, and move forward with integrity. Join us as we take a journey through 2025, starting with our April 2025 newsletter.
Our April 2025 issue, “Rejection Causes Burnout”, starts with a hidden load many middle managers carry: being the person who has to say “no.” It reframes rejection as an everyday act of exclusion—denying projects, dismissing ideas, overlooking contributions—and shows how repeatedly rejecting others can quietly build guilt, self-doubt, and decision fatigue. The shift we offer to leaders to avoid burnout is practical and humane: move from “failure and stop” to “feedback and merge,” where honest assessment and authentic support turn “no” into “not now” or “not yet.”
In our May 2025 issue, “Manage as Sower”, we zoom in on why many leaders wear a “mask” at work—because they don’t feel safe being fully authentic. It contrasts the “manager-as-maintainer” (mask as order and restraint) with the “manager-as-sower” (cultivating self-awareness and thoughtful intention). The invitation we offer to leaders is slow, grounded growth: assess your mindsets, examine your environment, and change behavior intentionally—unmasking responsibly over time, not abruptly.
Our June 2025 issue, “Why Buy-in Fails—and What Great Leaders Do Instead”, challenges the typical “get employees to buy in” playbook by naming what buy-in often triggers: threat to autonomy and conflict avoidance. Instead of selling a directive, we encourage leaders to “shape the vision for how your team will move forward,” making space for doubt and giving people agency in the how. The four phases—Learning & Believing, Acceptance & Consent, Co-Authoring & Creating, Executing & Evolving—turn rollout into a shared path rather than a pressure campaign.
The July 2025 issue, “The In-Service Illusion: Why Participation Isn’t Progress or Impact”, takes the buy-in challenge and applies it to professional learning: participation isn’t progress, and completion tracking does not mean impact. It argues adult learning collapses when it’s treated like a checklist—especially when organizations stop at reactions and basic outcomes. The alternative we propose is designing learning “in-service to them [your team]”: start with why together, blend formats with intention, build reflection and application, redefine accountability around takeaways and support needs, and follow up until new habits actually stick.
The August 2025 issue, “Job Malaise? Is Role Clarity to Blame?”, brings this year’s throughline into the everyday question: “Is this job doable?” It defines role clarity broadly—responsibilities, expectations, resources, success criteria, conflicts, and priorities—then warns against two myths: managers aren’t the sole owners of clarity, and roles aren’t fixed. Our recommendation? Pair role clarity (macro) with work clarity (micro), and tailor how much clarity you provide to what each person needs, using regular check-ins and explicit “how to get more clarity” agreements.
Our September 2025 issue (an editor’s favorite), “Exiting the C-Suite? Do It with Care, Integrity and Impact”, extends the same care-and-clarity posture to leaving an executive role. It reframes transition as part of leadership’s natural cycle, not failure, and argues that ignoring the signals of when it is time to leave can result in burnout, resentment, and abrupt exits. Our guidance is steady: plan succession early, build reflection cycles, use trusted accountability check-ins (“kitchen cabinet”), give meaningful notice, and practice stewardship—leave with integrity and don’t interfere after you go.
The October 2025 issue, “Wait! They are my manager?”, brings us down to the lived reality of weak management: promotion isn’t preparation, and knowledge isn’t practice. Our recommendation for leaders isn’t to burn out or burn it down—it’s to lead from where you are. Model the leadership you want, communicate with clarity, offer support without rescuing, share credit, coach peers with humility, seek mentors, and show up consistently. It’s comforting in a tough way: leadership can be a choice even when titles fail you.
In the November 2025 issue (an editor’s favorite), “What Does it Mean to Live Change?”, we close by naming why all of the work we have discussed over the last several newsletters matters now: old linear change management playbooks don’t match a world that won’t stand still. We argue that for leaders, the move is from managing or leading change to living it—control to curiosity, plans to presence, change-as-event to change-as-environment, and vision-as-destination to vision-as-compass. Put simply: leaders steady people not by pretending certainty, but by being grounded, self-aware, and adaptive together.
For us, leadership, in the end, isn’t measured by how polished our plans look or how perfectly we can keep things under control. It’s measured by what happens to people under our care—whether they feel clarity instead of confusion, agency instead of pressure, and possibility instead of exhaustion.
Across these months, our message has been steady and clear: when you have to say “no,” do it with feedback and humanity. When you feel the urge to hide behind a mask, choose the slower work of self-awareness and intentional growth. When change arrives, don’t sell it—walk with your people through it. When learning is required, don’t track participation—design for meaning and application. When roles feel murky, build both role clarity and work clarity, together, and keep revisiting what “doable” really means. And when it’s time to leave—or when the person above you isn’t leading well—remember that leadership is still available to you: through presence, integrity, stewardship, and the everyday choice to show up the way you want the world to feel.
If there’s one thing to carry forward, it’s this: we don’t need more performance from leaders—we need more groundedness. More listening. More honest conversations. More shared ownership. The future belongs to those who can stay human in motion—who can live change with others, not impose it on them.
So as you step into the next year, the next meeting, the next hard conversation, keep it simple: be clear, be kind, and be brave enough to build with your people instead of around them. That’s how cultures shift. That’s how trust grows. And that’s how leadership lasts. Onward!
Behind the Scenes at The Nelson Pages
This year could not have happened without the Editors: Sarah Gillespie and Brandy Nelson.
Dr. Sarah Gillespie is an experienced educator—teacher, school administrator, instructional coach, curriculum specialist, and professional learning facilitator. She believes in the power of continuous learning and brings a grounded approach to her work—blending practical insight, reflection, and purpose. She is committed to creating spaces of belonging and empowering others in all their endeavors.
Dr. Brandy Nelson is an executive and educational leader with more than 28 years of experience advancing educational and economic outcomes for all. She serves as Executive Director of Instructional Design at the College Board and is Founder and CEO of NelsonRoots, with prior roles as Academic Director for Reading Reimagined and Partner at Rethinc. Dr. Nelson integrates executive leadership development, systems thinking, instructional design, and standards-aligned pedagogy. Beginning her career as a math teacher in the Bronx, she has served as a principal, district executive, and executive coach.
Our Editor’s Favorites
Additionally, our editors have some favorites for 2025. If you only have time to read two of them, here are the ones we suggest you prioritize:
Sarah’s favorite was our November 2025 issue, What does it mean to live change? Hint: The answer isn’t in a playbook. Why did you like this one? Evolution. Culmination. Realization. This issue is the strongest synthesis of ideas, the most resonant storytelling, and the truest reflection of our thoughts on leadership (yet). I chose this issue because it captures the complexity of leading and managing and recognizes that the answers aren’t in a playbook–haven’t we all experienced one? Read one? Maybe made one? The corporate world seems to have borrowed “playbooks” from the sports world but didn’t capture how those playbooks evolve with players, opponents, games, and seasons. Working on this issue made me recognize that. Even thinking about it now, maybe the playbook isn’t dead, it just needs to live change too.
Brandy’s favorite was our September 2025 issue, “Exiting the C-Suite? Do It with Care, Integrity and Impact.” Why did you like this one? It stands out to me because it tackles a leadership moment most organizations avoid discussing: how and when to leave well. It normalizes leadership transitions and emphasizes legacy over endurance. It reframes the process of a leadership transition as stewardship—an integral, ethical phase of leadership. I love how the piece blends emotional insight (burnout, guilt, identity) with concrete, actionable guidance: succession planning, reflection cycles, accountability partners, and intentional notice. It is also deeply personal for me because I have participated in various executive leadership transitions.
Acknowledgements and Thank You
A special thank you to our guest writers, Jeanine Thomas (May 2025 issue, “Manage as Sower”) and Dr. Alison Harris Welcher (November 2025 issue, “What Does it Mean to Live Change?”). Their instincts and insights have been invaluable to The Nelson Pages and our readership agrees. Thank you Jeanine and Alison!
We also want to thank Derick Brooks for designing our logo. It is spectacular and we are grateful for his talent, his listening ear and his feedback on the design. Thank you Derick!
Lastly, we thank you, our readers and subscribers for all your feedback, encouragement and genuine love of this work. We are looking forward to all that 2026 will bring and we wish you a wonderful winter break and a happy and healthy new year! See you in 2026 with new content and a couple of really cool surprises!
