Reader

I wanted to write a shiny, brag-worthy year-in-review post.

But I can't.

Looking back on what my clients have been through in the last 12 months makes me sad.

The UK economy has been on its knees. Cost of living through the roof, and in no way matched by any increase in wages. Inflation and interest rates high. GDP crawling.

And businesses slashed across the board. No job seemed safe.

Behind the headlines, here's what leadership really looked like in 2024:

-> Knowing WHO was being made redundant but having to sit on that news for weeks

-> Learning about your own redundancy but not being able to tell your team

-> Picking up the pieces of morale after watching colleagues walk out the door

-> Months of job searching with no success

-> Making the impossible choices about who stays and who goes

-> Rebuilding yourself after the redundancy letter arrives

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This isn't just another sad story though.

It's about tenacity. Resilience. The kind that doesn't make it into LinkedIn posts.

It's about leaders who:

· Showed up every day, even when their hearts were breaking

· Held their teams together through impossible decisions

· Rebuilt themselves after devastating setbacks

· Kept their humanity while delivering inhumane news

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If your 2024 looked ANYTHING like this, I want you to know:

💛 Your struggles don't make you a weak leader - they make you a human one

💛 The hardest moments often forge the strongest leadership skills

💛 Growth rarely looks Instagram-worthy while it's happening

Here's my commitment to you for 2025.

I'll keep creating space for these real conversations about leadership. The messy, the difficult, the transformative moments that don't make it to LinkedIn.

Because that's where the real work happens.

With deep respect for your journey,

Catherine

P.S. Know someone who needs to read this? Forward this email to them. Sometimes just knowing we're not alone makes all the difference.