Reflecting on 2025: Perspectival Shifts
By: Bradley McDevitt, MA, ACC
As this year comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the moments that reshaped my understanding of leadership, presence, and human development.
One of the most meaningful shifts came through a client who realized that the “difficult person” on their team was actually the one naming what everyone else avoided. Watching that recognition land reinforced something essential: difference, when taken seriously rather than sidestepped, becomes a source of clarity and wiser action. That insight came not from technique but from slowing down long enough to see what was actually happening instead of what was assumed.
A decisive coaching moment unfolded when another client paused, exhaled, and said quietly, “I’ve been leading from fear.” The candor of that moment clarified the work for both of us. Gratitude followed not as sentiment but as relief—proof that when truth is spoken plainly, the field changes.
A personal milestone this year was the publication of my chapter The Art in Artificial: An Imaginal Approach to AI in Soul & The Machine: Depth Psychology and Artificial Intelligence (Palgrave Macmillan).
The project deepened my commitment to exploring how leaders can navigate emerging technologies without losing their grounding in embodiment, imagination, and human complexity.
The tools that made the greatest difference in my practice were surprisingly simple: structured pauses at key moments, tighter contracting at the outset of engagements, and brief reflective prompts that help clients surface what they’re actually sensing. These small shifts produced a disproportionate impact and often opened the space for more honest dialogue.
A book that shaped my thinking this year was Byung-Chul Han’s Non-Things, which examines how digital life erodes the weight and presence of the real world. Han’s critique sharpened my awareness of how attention fragments, relationships thin, and the self becomes unmoored when materiality recedes. His work has been a steady reminder that leadership today requires restoring depth in a culture that = rewards speed and abstraction.
If I had to choose an image to represent 2025, it would be a beam of late-afternoon light falling across a conference table after a long session. Nothing dramatic—just a quiet moment that captures how clarity often emerges in ordinary spaces when people are willing to look again.
Wishing the TCC community a reflective close to the year and a grounded start to the next.