5<2: Five Niche Strategies to Face 2025 with Grace

Five ?? in under 2 minutes to elevate your impact.

Something unforeseen happened launching into 2025—I face planted and broke my nose! Neither you nor I saw that coming but in hindsight I think I stumbled onto something.?

I felt I knew what to expect from this year and thought I was ready. In December, I wrote, “For 2025, one thing seems certain: continuous accelerating change will be our constant context. To help clients keep nimble and thrive, we are centering alignment + interdependence in Q1 + Q2!”?And then I tripped and broke my face.

Pain and puns aside, 2025 came out punching. Here are five niche strategies to face this year with grace:

• Offer bite-sized gifts of time and attention to super-size your impact. Seconds after I fell, a passerby helped me up, assured me I’d be okay, walked with me for a block and wished me well. I was very grateful and said so! Our five minute exchange restored my sense of security, autonomy and courage, and set the tone for everything that followed.
• Own powerful emotions to promote strategic thinking. I was close to home so I returned. I met my wild eyes and messy face in the mirror, cursed up a storm and kicked into gear. I cleaned and dressed my wounds and grabbed everything I’d need in the ER. I faced reality, owned my rage, and calculated the best course of action.
• Practice clear and reciprocal communication. When stakes are high, what you don’t know may be more important than what you do. The ER team was uninterested in my visible hurts. They wanted to know if something precipitated my fall, if I had injuries beyond what we could see. They explained their priorities and told me what to expect. In response, I mirrored them, keeping my communication on point, thorough and appreciative.
• Remember stories aren’t written—they’re authored. Falling, failing, even breaking, is a plot point. A story is a winding journey that peaks in a “mysterious yet inevitable” way (Aristotle). My working title for 2025 is 'Relentless'. Make space to process and find your feet, connect with co-authors, and regroup to advance y/our story.
• Don’t avoid going deep—the way out is through! After falling, I couldn’t wear glasses or work so my sight turned inward, to making sense of what happened. Then the idea came to write my first LinkedIn article, to challenge myself to transform injury into insight and community. I got so much out of it I decided to make it a series, "5<2". We regenerate when we locate and exercise our power, both individually and collectively.

So, don't know about you, but I’ll be following my nose this year...

Backstory on this 5<2:?

Since failing to be nimble, my Q1/Q2 themes of alignment and interdependence have taken on new meaning! As I write I'm nursing a second broken nose. A week after the first a contrite ENT rebroke my nose in an attempt to restore its former glory. Unpleasant, but thanks to the folks with whom I’m interdependent, I’m comfortable and on the mend.

Michaela Ablon is an executive coach, consultant, speaker and facilitator working the roundabout of identity, strategy, communication and change. To learn more, connect on LinkedIn, visit Spkwell.com + Wrkwell.co, and/or request a Q1/Q2 prospectus.

All images and text ? Michaela Ablon 2025

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