A Cup of Coffee | A Glass of Wine - Issue 05 - December 2025 Edition
The Year-End Reset: Strategic Focus, Clarity, and the Leader You’re Becoming Next
☕ A Cup of Coffee
The Discipline of Strategic Focus
December is a strange month in advisory leadership.
Half the calendar is on fire. The other half is slowing down.
You are reviewing the year behind you while the next one is already demanding your attention.
Most senior professionals fall into one of two traps:
trying to finish everything, or planning nothing.
Both kill momentum.
I spoke with a client recently, a Managing Director carrying a meaningful book and stepping into a larger platform role. He asked a simple, pointed question:
“How should I think about 2026 in a way that is not just another list of goals?”
Senior-level planning is not about ambition.
It is about architecture. The way you sequence effort, manage energy, and create space for what will actually move your franchise forward.
Here is the three-part framework I shared with him:
1. Start at the end.
If it were December 2026 and you were looking back, what three outcomes would make you most proud?
Those become your anchors.
2. Translate anchors into quarterly focus areas.
Momentum is not built by doing more. It is built by sequencing the right things in the right order.
3. Design the “No.”
At senior levels, drift comes less from lack of clarity and more from lack of boundaries.
What will you consistently say no to, delegate, or redesign so your time reflects your priorities?
Then we zoomed out.
“What would 2030 you wish you had invested in earlier?”
That is when the lens shifts. From activity to impact. From the year ahead to the leader you are becoming.
Strategic focus is not about doing everything better. It is about doing fewer things with conviction.
🍷 A Glass of Wine
Clarity Is Not Found. It Is Created.
Every December, I used to do the same ritual.
Print my pipeline. Review my compensation. Compare my deals to prior years.
I was measuring output, not direction.
The best leaders I have coached, and the best ones I worked with, do not wait for clarity to arrive.
They manufacture it through reflection, choice, and identity.
They ask quieter questions:
What did this year reveal about me
Where did I show up small
Where did I grow into someone I did not expect
Who do I want to be in the rooms I will walk into next year
This is not philosophy. It is commercial.
A leader with clarity
Speaks more simply
Decides faster
Builds trust sooner
Originates from identity, not effort
And the real unlock.
Your next level rarely comes from adding more goals.
It comes from subtracting the ones that do not belong to you anymore.
That is the work of December.
Not just finishing the year, but clearing the path for the next one.
💡 Coaching Insight of the Month
Strategic Focus = Direction + Boundaries + Identity
Leaders with focus share three traits:
They operate from anchors. Outcomes define actions, not the other way around.
They build quarterly discipline. Every 90 days has a theme, a commercial storyline they can narrate.
They align decisions with identity. You do not become a trusted advisor by accident. You become one by acting like the person you are growing into, now.
🎯 Mini Challenge: The 2026 Focus Sheet
Take 20 minutes with a blank page.
Write the three outcomes you want to celebrate next December.
List the quarterly focus areas that support them.
Write your “No List.” Three things you will intentionally decline, delegate, or redesign next year.
Add the 2030 lens: “What will future me wish I had started now?”
If everything matters, nothing does.
Clarity is built through exclusion.
🌊 What’s Happening @ Deep Lake
Coaching 12 senior professionals across investment banking, private equity, and corporate leadership who are all navigating the transition from execution to high-impact advisory influence.
Year-end planning conversations are in full swing. If you are targeting your next revenue jump, whether that is your first 5 million dollar fee attribution or a 50 to 100 percent increase in attributed fees in 2026, this is the window to recalibrate your strategy and presence.
Q1 2026 Team Workshops
Several banks and firms are exploring Deep Lake workshops to accelerate origination capability and leadership presence for their executives and leaders.
Executive Roundtables
We are kicking off a new series of 45-minute Executive Roundtables, starting with the topic leaders selected most in our recent poll: Navigating High-Stakes Communication. These small-group sessions offer practical tools you can apply immediately and a live preview of the broader advisory-leadership workshops we are building for banks in Q1. A simple, high-value way to invest in your development and engage with the Deep Lake platform.
CPCC Certification
I recently completed the Co-Active Professional Certified Coach (CPCC) certification. It was rigorous: oral exams, over 100 coaching hours, supervised training, and deep personal work. Just like earning my CFA and MBA before banking, you do not need it to do the job. But the quality of your foundation determines the height of your career. I want Deep Lake built on the strongest foundation possible.
If you would like to discuss your goals or your team’s 2026 ambitions, you can reply directly or grab time here → https://calendly.com/deeplakecoaching/grab-a-time-to-catch-up
📚 Three Small Sips to End the Month
📘 Book – “The One Thing” – Gary Keller
Extraordinary results come from focusing on the one thing that matters most. Clarity of focus drives meaningful progress.
📺 Video – “The Art of Saying No” – Steve Jobs
Saying no to distractions, even good opportunities, is essential to maintaining focus on what truly moves the needle.
🕉 Gita Sloka – Chapter 2, Verse 64
रागद्वेषवियुक्तैस् तु विषयानिन्द्रियैश् चरन् | Rāga-dveṣa-viyuktais tu viṣayān indriyaiś caran
“One who moves with disciplined senses, free from distraction, finds clarity.”
📬 If you are ready to enter 2026 with clarity, focus, and a storyline worthy of your next level, email me at rahul.bala@deeplakecoaching.com or book a time here.
