What’s your (one) word for 2026?

There were years when things looked fine from the outside, but they weren’t fine.

Professionally, I was doing the work. Personally, I was carrying more than I should have. I had a coach, a tighter inner circle, and the right intentions, but I still found myself drifting. New ideas kept pulling at me. New opportunities kept showing up. And I didn’t have a reliable way to decide what deserved my energy and what didn’t.

That’s when I started using a Word of the Year.

Not because I needed inspiration. I needed something stable. Something I could come back to when everything felt urgent and nothing felt anchored.

Over time, that one-word constraint became a way to frame my decisions, my behavior, and how I showed up as a leader. It helped me see where I was overextending, where I was hesitating, and where I was misaligned without realizing it.

In this episode, I share my word for 2026, Steadfast, and why it emerged after several years of intentionality, growth, and momentum. At this stage, staying the course, preparing deliberately, and building patiently matters more than acceleration.

I also walk through how I choose a word using a gap analysis, why most senior leaders resist the discipline this requires, and how pressure-testing the word with people who know you well makes all the difference.

This isn’t a tactic. It’s a way to lead with more consistency when the environment keeps changing.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:50

Welcome to Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy, where we go well beyond the corporate playbook to unpack major opportunities, hidden challenges, and critical issues that senior retail leaders face every day. So let's get started right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Well, I don't know about you. Um I remember I remember closing my eyes in January 2025. And then I when I opened them, it was December of 2025. And now we are in uh January 2026. I know sometimes you're not supposed to say that on a podcast, like when you're recording something, but for for today's episode, it's it's extremely important. It really is, that we uh designate that this recording is happening at the very beginning of the year. And uh today's episode is really gonna help uh my goal is to help you level set um your expectations and your thought process and help you centralize a little bit of your ideas um for this year going forward. And how do we do that? We do that by creating and establishing a word of the year. I do this every year. Um several, several years ago, those who are close to me, this is probably about seven, eight years ago, um, you know, know that uh, you know, I was having a um a really rough time uh professionally, personally, so many different things um taking place in my life, um figuring out this whole business thing, figuring out whether or not to leave um retail and start all these different and start this this business, start and continue on with this podcast. Just a whole bunch of things going on. So I did like what most people would do. I I you know established a better spiritual life. I um I you know was working with my coach. Um I established a smaller inner circle, but I still found myself drifting. I still found myself drifting with ideas, and you know, new things would kind of come across my plate and I would gravitate to it and I would just go after it. There was a something, something missing. There was something I needed to, you know, hold on to that I needed to always sort of go back and use as a filter, um, as use something to stabilize me, use something that I could um always point back to to see if I was back on track. And so years ago, this isn't new, this isn't mine, this isn't um anything that I have created. This word of the year has been around for a long, long, long time. Um, so I did I decided to do that. Um I I decided to figure out how do I create and establish a word of the year. One of the things that I want to get across today is that while I know for a lot of you who are doing big jobs and have big roles and you know running you know millions and billions of dollars of operations, this may seem very simplistic. And this may you may you may even look at this with a sense of skepticism. I did too. I um for years, I you know, before I even started this practice, I was very skeptical of the idea. I said, this is just too soft, this is not going to help me. Um how can I really use one word? You know, I change as a leader, my year change will change as a leader, my goals will change, all these different things. And I understand that skepticism. I understand it sounds super simplistic, especially in a world um that we're living in today, when things are complex, um priorities shift every day. So how can I use and say that I need one word? Um dare I say the word of the day is something that will help you sort through the mess to sort through the noise. You know, several months ago, I was having conversations with people around um, you know, AI and how everybody's a thought leader, right? You can look at some of my posts on LinkedIn and how I sort of poke a little fun at how AI has helped everybody become a thought leader. And in that context, there's just a lot of noise. There's a lot of things that leaders have to sift through. And if you are not grounded or tethered to um who you are and who you want to be and where you want to go, um, then you start to uh sway, you start to drift, you start to focus in on a lot of different things. So uh when I started this process, um, I started initially with a phrase, and then I said, I can't do that. I have to go to one word. So um I don't remember some of my words a while from a while ago, um, but I do remember uh in two in 2022, my my word was restart. In 2023, my word was intentional. In 2024, my word was greater. Um and last year, last year, my word was momentum. And for this year, I've been teasing this a lot in my um in my community, um, telling people that I'm gonna I'm gonna let them know the word. Um, but I told them I was gonna wait until the actual podcast came out. Um and my word of of 2026 is steadfast. I know it's a word that we don't use a lot in sort of the uh English vernacular, um, but or you know, and just in just conversations, you know, but I didn't want to use words such as finish or completion and things like that. While those words are inside of the concept and idea of being steadfast as a leader, um I didn't want to use those words. Um I came across this word because for me, the words my word of the year builds off of probably the last two to three years. I think back about where I was, I think back about the ideas that um I wanted to put forth, and the word steadfast um just kept coming up of how do I stay the course, prepare and build. Those three concepts have been the resounding thing within my quiet time um as a leader. Stay the course, prepare and build. And that's where the word steadfast came from. It came from um constantly being like uh in my head around what uh what I needed to do, which was stay the course, prepare, um, and build. I'm not gonna get into the specifics of what all of that means, but that is where uh the word steadfast came from. How how how do you choose your word for the year? This is probably the biggest question, right, that everybody has. Once you decide that this is something you want to do, you will say, I I need to figure out how do I choose a word. So I wanted to start with a quote because I I believe that this word that you choose is symbolic, but it is also part of your ethos and also part of you know what you want to stand for, who you want to be. So there's this quote by James Baldwin that has been like, you know, living in my mind the last six, seven months. And it says, uh, I can't believe what you say because I see what you do. And what we wh why that has been stuck in my head. So as a leader, you know, especially within the retail space, what you do is uh, gosh, way more important than what you say. It is way more important than what you say, because I can say anything, and I could tell you that this is what we're gonna do, this is how we're gonna move, and this is the direction that we're gonna take. But if I don't do anything associated with that, then it doesn't even matter. Your credibility, your influence with me is shot. So when you think about your word of the year, you know, think about it with that as sort of your foundational thought. I can't believe what you say because I see what you do. Same thing if you want to think about it with people, right? I can't believe what people say because I see what they do. What's your word of the year? What what I want to give into, I want to talk about two things before we we give you some practical um ideas. Uh what is your word? I know this, and I know this word, and I know what I'm about to say is going to sound very restricting because it kind of is. Um your word is a constraint. It is they are it is a guardrail for you on the left or to the right of what it is. It's the thing that you come back to when everything feels urgent, where priorities start to blur, you're tempted to say, um, say yes to just to keep things moving. It's a word that um doesn't give you answers. It sharpens your judgment. This that last phrase there for me has always been the telltale sign of whether or not I'm going to be successful. Um utilizing and choosing a word for the year is that it does this word sharpen my judgment? And a lot of times you won't know until you actually um start to utilize the word as a as a as a as a guard as a um guardwell within your life. Um you won't know that because uh until you utilize something, right, the function and form of it um sort of goes wanting. So you have to make sure that you're utilizing it. And the reason I can say that it it sharpens my judgment is because I've had years of of choosing words um and allowing it to uh direct me and guide me. So it has over my years, and I know it will this year, it will sharpen my judgment. So three three traits that I want you to think about when you when you um write down your word of the year and some some of your ideas and brainstorm, and I'll give you some thoughts about that too. So three traits clarity, focus, and alignment. I've talked a little bit about sharpening your judgment, but the your word, once again, it's a word, it's not a phrase. Um it is ha it has to be a filter that you run everything through. Here's the reason, and I I'm getting ahead of myself, but I can't stop myself because once I start talking about this, I the the floodgates open. The the one of the main reasons why I see a lot of people who and leaders mainly who don't want to choose a word of the year because they want the flexibility. I get it. I understand it. Once again, I said earlier priorities change and things like that. But when you are trying to build something, there are certain things you have to give up. There are certain ideas, there are certain behaviors, there are certain conversations, and dare I say there are certain relationships that you have to give up. Right? They no longer fit who you are, where you're going, and what you're doing. Right. And so, yes, this is a lot of responsibility for one word. I understand that, but it does help you with uh solidifying what who gives uh who do you give access to and what you give access to, right? You know, what are the things that you allow to come in? The people, ideas, all those different things. So it it has to provide clarity, focus, and alignment, right? When you think about your word of the year. So what uh what a what the word of the year is not I was on a podcast um a while ago, uh um Birdsey um podcast. Great, great, great time, great time. And uh one of the things that we spoke about was the the idea and concept of motivation. And what I said um to them was that uh I am not a fan of motivation. The motivation, um, even inspiration is temporary. I am a massive fan of momentum. Momentum will help you move through things that you would have normally been stuck with. And so I think when you think about your word of the year, yes, can it be inspiring? Maybe that is the jumping off point for the word, right? It could be inspiring. It could be something that inspires you to do more, to be more, to act differently, you know, understandably, right? I get it. But at a certain point, it is that that feeling, that vibe, that slogan is going to wear off when reality slaps you in the face, and you are sort of stuck there with yourself. You don't have any friends, you don't have your colleagues, right? And you are stuck and you are thinking about what the hell do I do next? Where do I go? Once again, I know this is a lot of responsibility for one word to have in your life. And this is why I'm dedicating the time to do this podcast because I believe in it so much, because it has influenced and impacted my life way more, way more than I could um ever imagine that this process would. So this is why I spend time with this. And um, so the your word is not inspiration, it's not a slogan, it's it's not soft, it's not complacent. I and because I there are so many priorities that leaders have, so many decisions that you that you need to make. The real problem isn't um isn't that you have the the priorities. The real issue is your your scattered leadership energy. Like what are you giving your time to? And I can say that with full um full realization that 2025 was that year for me. Um, in context because my word was momentum. And so what I started to see in my life was there are so many different new opportunities and new things that were um that were uh uh coming and bolting on to the momentum that I was able to create, but those things should have never seen the light of day. But because I uh I was generating so much momentum, there were situations and people and concepts and ideas that wanted to attach themselves to that momentum. And so I found myself, the latter part of last year, having to disconnect and decouple some of those things. And the word it can be, it can be advantageous, but it can also be something that um helps you understand a little bit more about yourself and where it is that you need to be going. And so while my word of of the year last year was momentum and I was able to generate a lot of momentum, there were opportunities that were coming my way that I needed to remove. I needed to say this isn't part of what that is. And um, I'm so glad I did. I'm so I'm so glad I did. So where you spend your energy, where you spend your time, where you give your thoughts to, that part is extremely, extremely important. All right. So let's do this. I am going to give you how to how to choose your word. So I gave you um sort of my backstory, gave you my word, and then I spoke about what a word is, and a word is not. So let's do this. Let's talk about um how to choose the right word. Those of you who who know me and who have been coached by me, who um are part of our campus, things that we do from a training and development standpoint, all those different things. I I learned this concept uh decades ago, and I still utilize it to this day. While there are different variations of it and different aspects um of the process or of the analysis process, the fundamental um concept is the same, and it it is a gap analysis. I know earth shattering, earth shattering. It's not anything if any of you have never um you know thought about or um utilized the gap analysis, it is one of the most um fundamental things um from a leadership standpoint that you could do. That along with critical thinking and five whys, those are things that I put my I stake my reputation on because I believe um those processes um are critical to every single leader. So gap analysis. Typically it's a it's a three-part analysis, and then I have something that I want to talk to you about, like pressure testing your word. So the gap analysis is your to be state, your current state, your to be state, and then the gap, right? That's it. I know it sounds simplistic because it should be. I think we overcomplicate everything nowadays. And so anytime when I'm working with a client or anytime I need to make a decision or I need to think about moving forward, I look at things from a gap analysis. Where am I? Where am I currently? Right? Look back before you look forward. What was my year like? What did I get accomplished? Um, but more importantly, who was I as an individual, as a leader? Right? We you know, a lot of times when we think about um leadership, we think about ourselves from a um a KPI standpoint, right? What did we get accomplished and this and that? I I like to think about myself and those around me from a sort of a psychographic standpoint of like what's their intent? What did they really think and do about last year? How did they feel about the decisions that they've made? How do they feel about who they were and who they who are who they're becoming as a as a leader? I do that with clients and I do that with myself constantly. Who am I? Am I different than what I used to be? Um, and what are some of the things that I need to think about differently in my life to become the person that I want to be? Um, I will never arrive right as the person that I want to be because uh I am always changing as a leader. You there you should never think that you will ever arrive at this certain point. There are different things that you will know and learn as a person, but if you if you stop to think that um you've you you you when you get to a certain point that you have arrived as a leader, you know everything that you need to know. That man, I gotta tell you what, you cease to um become approachable. And that's a whole nother topic that we are going to be discussing this year. Um if you are interested in learning more about how to um lead differently and how to become, you know, the leader that, you know. So you're called to be. Not the one that people have said that you should be. You need to check out the campus, our membership community. There's a link in the description below. But make sure that you make sure you check it out. We have so much content and so many new ideas that are that are there for leaders who are in the self-discovery phase, right? Who are thinking about themselves in a different space where they want to go, who they want to be. So everything that we're talking about relative to the word of the year falls in line with our concepts and who we are and what we do and what we what we want to help leaders solve within our campus. So make sure that you check it out. So first part is your current state. Look back before you look forward. Couple of questions to ask yourself. Where did I overextend? I love that question. I love that question because it's very telling. And if you're honest with yourself, it it's very it'll be very telling about the decisions that you made, the connections that you've um established, the words that were spoken, the um the judgments that you've made that you didn't make, where did I overextend myself? Second question. Where did I hesitate?

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Where did I hesitate? And why did I hesitate?

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Was it because I wasn't I wasn't equipped to to go in that direction? If you weren't, that's great because you self-identified. But it's important to understand why did you hesitate? And two more questions. Where did I feel misaligned and what patterns keep repeating? I'm telling you what, these qu these questions right here are a podcast for leaders alone. Uh I I can I can make a podcast episode for each one of these, and I just may do that. But the questions that you want to ask in your current state is where did I overextend? Where did I hesitate? Where did I feel misaligned? And what patterns keep repeating? You gotta be honest with yourself. Please be honest with yourself when you're answering these questions. Like, don't, don't, don't half-ass this. Sorry for the French. You can, you know, you just can't. And if you do, you're gonna get what you get, and don't be upset. All right. That's what uh Cheryl Jones always says. The second step is your to-be state. Like, where do you want to be? Who do you want to be by the end of the year? What do you want to accomplish and why? And uh who will be a part of this journey with you. Years ago, years ago, um, those who have um done any coaching with me, they know I um I use the uh the Enneagram um as part of our um onboarding process. I love the Enneagram because it gives you not just your personality type, but it helps you understand who you are as a leader when you're healthy and who you are as a leader when you are not, when you're not healthy. And uh I remember providing the Enneagram for a client, and it was like a then we we got on a call, and their their spouse, heard their spouse in the background say, Is that him? Is that him meaning like, is that your coach? And so um she jumped on and she's just like, I just gotta tell you, I just gotta tell you, oh my gosh, I'm so glad that you you gave him this Enneagram. I sat and down, I sat down and read it myself. This had to be about six, seven years ago. And I and I said, well, why did you do that and tell and walk me through the process? And so the conversation just went on and on and on. And what I realized at that point in time was that as you are going down this leadership journey, you're not doing this alone. He was not doing this alone because any changes in his behavior and his ideas and his concepts and all these different things, his spouse was going to be impacted by this. His team was going to be impacted by this. And so by her reading this, it gave her a um a behind-the-scenes perspective a little bit more about even who her husband was. I think they had been married like seven, eight years, but it gave her a little bit more perspective. And the reason I wanted to put that story in is because as you think about your journeys, you think about your word of the year, and we'll talk about this here in a second when we talk about pressure testing, is that you're not alone in this journey. And people, there are people around you that are going to um be with you on this. Um, and it's important that you identify who they are. So your to-be state uh is who do you want to be by the end of the year? There's so many different variables. We could talk about that. Um, you whenever want to talk about this stuff offline, please don't hesitate to connect with me. Um, so I can help you move through some of this process. Um what do you want to accomplish and why? The accomplishment standpoint can be tangible things, um, things that people can see, um, but also some of the intangibles, things from a personality and uh leadership growth standpoint that a lot of people can't really see and quantify. Um but you you as a leader understand that these are certain things that you where you want to go. The the last part of this process is to identify the gap. And this is where the word of the year really starts to form, is because you have identified, if you have bit, if you have done this honestly, right? You have I've truly identified where you are, bumps, warts, successes, failures, all those things. You have truly identified where you are. You have a idea of where you want to go, your to-be state, right? Because that it will that won't be set in stone. It's an idea, um, because things will probably potentially change, especially if you change as a person. That to be state can can look completely different, and that's okay. But when you identify the gap, right, um, your word lives in between where you were last year and and um the person that you actually want to be, right? Or the person that you uh are actually required and requiring yourself to be at the end of this year. So it's it lives in that friction. And I use the word friction um uh in this concept because it's important that you understand that there is uh a friction that you will have and that you need to understand as you move through this process. So I hope that gives you a little bit of um a perspective on how to choose your word. And when you've done that process, when you've narrow it narrow narrow it down to two to three different words, right? And you are thinking about picking and choosing, this last part is extremely important, and we're almost done here, is that you pressure test the word. You pressure test the word. Um and the best way that you can do it, the best way, uh is with your inner circle. Or if you have a coach. I've been doing this for a while, right? Whether it's working with leaders, dealing with people, been doing this 30, 30 years. And I gotta tell you, if you have a really solid inner circle, they will call BS on a lot of stuff that you do and think, right? They will call a lot of, they will call BS on a lot of stuff. And I gotta tell you, when you think about your inner circle, you think about your word of the year, it's important that you bring it to them. And you say, This is what I'm thinking about. Because they'll be like, nope, that's just uh no. Because even though you've done a lot of the work, right, the gap analysis, all these different things, you could get caught up in the rhythm and the excitement and inspiration of the word of the year. My word of the year is clarity. And your team and your your your your your um your uh uh your inner circle is like, no, it's not clarity because you don't need clarity. You you you waste too much time trying to get clear. You're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Your word should be activate, right? And it's just like, what do you mean? What are you talking about? Well, you know, I want my I want my word to be um um accomplished, right? And uh, and and your team and your your inner struggle is like, no, it's it's not, it shouldn't be accomplished because you haven't set priorities correctly. So how can you accomplish anything? Your word should be prioritized, right? And so um we get enamored a lot, and I'm I'm telling you this because I've I've done it. I've done it I've every almost every year when I when I run my word um through my inner circle, um I I, you know, they they come back with like, okay, so I have to go back to the drawing board, I have to make sure that I'm not doing it to please them, right? It's it's just because they know me, right? They know Steve. They don't they they know, you know, when I'm I'm being too high on something and I'm I'm I get I get in my feelings or I get super excited about something and they're like, yeah, that's cool, that's cool. But right, so you need people in your corner like that to help you pressure test your word. A couple things before we close, um, because I know you probably have a question, and this is the probably one of the big questions that a lot of people have. Is your word of the year for the entire year? Uh short answer is yes. Short answer is it's yes. It's it should be for for the in for the entire year. Now there are probably different layers and levels to your word. Um, I'll give you an example. Um my word for um 2024 was greater. Very elusive, right? That word. Very elusive. But what I realized in that year was that when I first started out, I I started producing greater uh pieces of of content. I started to figure out how do I continue to position what we are doing um within the within the retail space. Um I I I wanted greater exposure. I wanted greater influence. Um there I wanted um uh um greater relevance, right? So there are things that I knew that are where we went and where we needed to go. And if I focused in on us as a company becoming greater, then um things would things would fall into place. And once things were were greater, and once things had a um um a different level to them, the output, the quality, the ideas, the concepts, then once we were able to do that, then in 2025, we were able to build on the momentum of that. And now from from for this year, as we as we move forward, being steadfast, continue to stay the course, continue to prepare and continue to build. This is where we are currently. Um, this is where I am currently. So this the word isn't just about my business, but it is about who I am, podcast, everything, person, father, right, uh, fiance, all these different, all these different things, right? How do I make sure that I am being sort of steadfast for everybody in my life and also for myself. Also for myself. So your word of the year, short answer, uh, is it for the entire year? Yes. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. The real impact of your word of the year is that it will show you what you've been given attention to and the things that you shouldn't be given attention to. It will help you make faster decisions, less overthinking, greater consistency, and clearer leadership presence. When I when I show up as Steve Worthy, but when I also when I show up in the context of um being present in my word, right, intentional years ago, greater, right? Momentum. Um, you know, when I show up in the presence of that word, uh I give off a different level of confidence to those that are around me. Um they they already they know what they're getting, that if that makes sense. And so when you are being steadfast, and we can there you say you like how I used, I kind of slid my word in there. Um when you are being steadfast in in your word of the year, and how you are showing up in the in the guardrails of that word, right? People see you differently, you feel differently. There's a different level of confidence that you have. Your team will feel it. Your calendar starts to look differently. You explain yourself less. All these different things. The best leaders I know aren't more complex. They're not, they're more consistent. You take anything away from this conversation today, understand that the best leaders aren't more complex. They're more consistent. They're more consistent. So what happens if you you do this, you you identify this word of the year, telling you most leaders are struggling because of they're not struggling because of lack of ambition. They're not struggling because of that. I I deal with and have conversations with some of the most ambitious leaders that um that are out there within the retail and non-retail space and founders who are extremely ambitious. What they they lack is the ability to focus and truly become the person or the company that they should be. And stop spending time allowing others to influence who they become. You have to understand what you give access to is really sort of who you become. You are doom scroll, doom scrolling all the time. Guess what? That's who you tend to become. Discipline, being a leader that you have to called to be takes sacrifice. It takes the removal of certain relationships and ideas of of who you were, right? A lot of times what we see is that we see leaders living in who they were. Um and man, I'm telling you right now, your leadership skills are passe. People don't care about who you were. They care about who you are and who are you going to help them to become. I have a podcast episode coming up. I'm going to talk about it in the context of that, that interview process, I that style, I think it's owed. And what we tend to, because what I tend to see is leaders still lead within that star method. And they don't think about emotional intelligence. They don't think about the decision hierarchy and decision-making process and how are you building your team. And the, you know, a lot of times I know we talk about storytelling a lot within the within the retail space, but when you are so fixated on these rigid ideologies of who you are, and you don't provide the ability for change to take place within your leadership style, you stay the same. I don't want that for you. I don't want that for anybody, for any company that listens to this podcast. So I hope that this uh word of the year, I I want I want to know your word of the year. I want to know your word of the year. You can you can um connect with me on on LinkedIn, shoot me a DM after you after you've um listened to this. Give me your word of the year. If you are in our community in the campus, um please go ahead and put your your word of the year um uh there in the feed. There's a whole section associated with that, with a word of the year. Um people have already been putting their their words there. Um I want to know what it is and and and why. Um please, you know, uh shoot me an email, all those, all those good things because I'm telling you what, if you're able to focus in and use this as a guiding principle for who you are as a leader, there is going to be no end to the success that you're gonna have personally, but also for those leaders around you. So thank you for listening to Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy. I appreciate you being here. Have a great day and God bless.