Choose to Be Different

“You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

― C.S. Lewis

We all have the power to influence our future. We can’t rewrite history, but we can be intentional about what comes next. The question isn’t how to be better in the year ahead, but how to be meaningfully different.

In my work with leadership teams, I rarely see a lack of ambition. I see a lack of focus. Everyone wants to grow. Few are willing to make deliberate trade-offs, because it is easier to compromise and include everyone than to make a definitive choice.

Meaningful difference doesn’t come from being better, smarter, or broader – it comes from being clearer, more distinct, and narrower. Differentiation, not just improvement, is what leads to growth.

Simple reflection asks, “What did I do last year?”

Differentiation based on focus asks, “What will I stand for this year?”

It is not enough to say you are strategic, practical, and client-focused or that you are hardworking, collaborative, and responsive. This sameness, what everyone else also claims, must be replaced with communicating and demonstrating how you are and will be unmistakably different.

As you shape what comes next, start with a differentiation exercise:

Who are we most for, and who are we no longer chasing? This is the most challenging question, and often the most powerful. Being ‘for everyone’ feels safe. It also guarantees you sound like everyone else.

Ask yourself:

• Which clients, industries, or problems energize us most?
• Where do we consistently do our best work and earn the most respect?
• If we had to choose, who would we proudly build around this year? Which problems would we organize around, whose work would we want more of, and what would our growth engine be?

And just as important:

• Which work drains us?
• Which clients do we keep simply because we always have?
• What are we willing to let go of to make room for what’s next?

Differentiation begins when you stop chasing breadth and start choosing depth.

What do we want to be remembered for when this year ends? That is not what’s on your website. Nor is it your complete list of services and capabilities.

Ask instead:

• When a client describes us to a colleague, what do we hope they say first?
• What story do we want told about us this time next year?
• What do we want to be known for, not just being good at? Here are some options to consider: clarity in chaos, strategic foresight, relentless advocacy, creative problem-solving, and unmatched responsiveness.

If you don’t choose what you want to be remembered for, the market will choose for you.

What will we do differently, and what business choices will we make, to earn that differentiation? This is where good intentions fall apart. Because differentiation is not a statement, it is a set of choices.

If we genuinely want to be remembered for that, then:

• How will our thought leadership change? What will be double down on, and what will we stop publishing?
• How will our business development change? Who will we pursue more intentionally, and how will we show up differently?
• How will our focus change? What initiatives will we narrow, pause, or even end?

Ask bluntly:

• What will we say no to this year?
• What will we invest in more deeply?
• What would someone outside the firm notice is different about us?

If your answers don’t change behavior, they are not differentiation. They are aspirations.

Examining and articulating your differentiation in this manner requires courage and deliberate trade-offs, and a leadership style intentional enough to own both.

This year, before writing another goal or resolution, ask a harder question:

In a world where everyone is improving, how will we be unmistakably different?

That answer, not a to-do list, is what will shape the year ahead.