A 2025 Year in R—SYKE!!!!!

Jan 01, 2026

Dear Oddballers,

2025 was generally fricking terrible.

I don’t need to rehash it.

You don’t need an #OddballWrapped any more than I needed Canva to tell me I was in their Top 1% of Magic Eraser users in 2025.

(Which, in their defense, does track.)

So let’s not review 2025, ok?

Instead, let’s preview 2026.

I am going to develop 2-3 half-baked ideas that will be shelved before the year is up. Probably because I severely underestimated how long it actually takes to do the thing. But said ideas will then be the source of my best work in 2029.
I will be perceived as “too much” by exactly the wrong people, and “exactly right” by the ones who truly matter.
I will say, “I don’t have the capacity for that right now,” one time, and survive the experience.
LinkedIn will continue to reward the least interesting leadership takes imaginable, and I’ll just say “pffft” and keep scrolling.
Rest will remain inconvenient for our economic systems, and I will continue doing it anyway.
I will romanticize at least one new organizational system or bullet journal or notebook and, after an extreme lack of follow-through, quietly return to using Post-its.
Someone will call Oddball Leadership “refreshing,” and another person will call it “unprofessional,” and both of them will be correct.
I will change my mind about something I was once very sure about — and be better for it.
I’ll definitely laugh. And probably cry.

Not necessarily earth-shattering. But that’s ok.

Because this year, I’m pursuing what’s true — not what’s flashy.

Here’s to a 2026 fueled by curiosity, rest, and a little constructive delusion.

Here’s to alignment over performance.

And here’s to staying odd on purpose. Happy New Year, y’all. 💫

Oddball Leadership