3 Leadership Tips from Executive Coach Michael King to Start the New Year Strong

As we prepare to turn the page into a new year, leaders everywhere are reflecting on how to create clarity, build stronger teams, and drive meaningful progress. Executive coach Michael King—founder of TEAMS. Coach and host of The Level Up Leader podcast—offers powerful guidance that pairs naturally with Lean leadership principles. His message: leadership success in the coming year won’t come from doing more, but from leading with greater intention, alignment, and authenticity.

Here are three of Michael King’s top tips for leaders heading into the new year, along with how they connect to Lean and continuous improvement.

1. Lead with Clarity of Vision and Identity

King consistently emphasizes that leadership begins with clarity—clarity of purpose, of goals, and most importantly, of identity. Leaders must ask: What do I stand for? What am I trying to create? Why does this matter? Without clarity, teams operate in a haze, and improvement stalls.

This directly supports Lean’s focus on true north thinking. When vision is crisp and goals are well-defined, it becomes easier to align people, eliminate wasteful distractions, and create processes that support what truly matters. As King says, clarity cuts through chaos—and in Lean, clarity is what empowers teams to solve problems at the source.

2. Use the Power of “Nope” to Protect Focus and Flow

One of King’s signature messages is the strategic power of saying “No.” Not negativity—alignment. Leaders often create their own bottlenecks by saying yes to everything. Instead, King encourages leaders to protect their energy and focus by declining tasks, requests, or opportunities that don’t support their mission.

This is Lean thinking in action. We can’t eliminate waste if we’re constantly piling on more work, more priorities, and more noise. The ability to say “no” preserves capacity for improvement, protects the team from burnout, and ensures that leaders spend their time on the vital few rather than the trivial many.

3. Turn Failure into Fuel for Growth

King teaches that failure isn’t the end—it’s an accelerator. In his “Dreaming Through Failure” approach, he urges leaders to extract learning from setbacks, redesign their systems, and keep moving forward with resilience. Failure becomes fuel.

This mirrors Lean’s belief that problems are treasures. Setbacks reveal gaps, illuminate process breakdowns, and surface improvement opportunities that would otherwise stay hidden. Leaders who frame failure as learning—not loss—create a culture of psychological safety where experimentation, problem-solving, and continuous improvement can thrive.

Starting the New Year with Intention

Whether you’re a frontline supervisor or a senior executive, these principles offer a strong foundation for the year ahead. Lead with clarity. Protect what matters most. Turn challenges into catalysts. When leaders model these behaviors, teams follow—and organizations unlock the conditions for continuous improvement.