Gifts opened. Boxes scattered. Wrapping paper strewn about. Christmas ends not as it came. The build up is long and sensational; the exit is cluttered but quiet.

It feels a lot like being a CIO in 2021.

The year began in chaotic focus; pandemic pivots were still being matured, strategic questions were still being raised, what-ifs and who-knows were more plentiful than fruit cakes. The political landscape was uncertain; supply-chain threats were casting a shadow; security risks were building up like opponent-hotels in a Monopoly game.

You handled it exceptionally well.

Aside from a bit of cleaning up, 2021 ends as a child who is easily put to bed.

It could have been so different, like a pesky nephew you know is up to no good, is fake-sleeping until the lights are out, and will get himself in trouble and blame you for it.

It’s not that we don’t enter 2022 with challenges; it’s just that 2021 proved yet again that there is a wonder to being a leader in America. We confront long odds and find ways to beat them; we are gut-punched but quickly get air back into our lungs; we are knocked around but not knocked out.

You won this round.

Every day a new threat arises: The Delta variant and Omicron monster; the Great Resignation and supply chain abyss; economic inflation and talent shortages. The media is never without a crisis.

And you, as a leader, never lack for a right response.

That’s the thing about fear. There are whole markets that thrive on it and need us to live in it. But you don’t buy into it. You just get on with it.

Fear can never exist on its own. It needs an accomplice, which is why we have phobias, a “fear of” something. Fear itself is an illusion, a phantom that cannot be grasped. But once a fear is named, it can be responded to.

You are a leader. Your job is to name the fear and conquer it. That’s what you have done in 2021. You separated fact from fiction, phantom from substance, and you looked at what remained and figured out how to beat it.

I salute you.

I worked with you. I watched you. I saw underdogs rise. Why? Because you were never really the underdog in the first place. You were just told that you were. You knew better.

Remember David and Goliath? Goliath is a giant; David is a young shepherd with brothers in an army. David approaches with a sling. The story is historically told as a miracle. David slays the giant with a stone. But as business guru Malcolm Gladwell points out, David was never the underdog. He was what was known as a slinger. His aim was unfailing; the velocity was lethal. He could kill at a distance, and he did. Goliath never stood a chance.

Hello slinger.

This is my privilege. I work with the greatest leaders in the world. CIOs and technology leaders thrive on innovation, but it doesn’t make them unstable or unpredictable. Just the opposite: It takes a keen strategist to see what really is and pave the way for what must be. You are primed to never be caught off guard.

Please read that again. You are primed to never be caught off-guard. Sure, you may need to think about some situations you find yourself in. But thinking is what you do best. It’s your slingshot. You just need to figure out what rocks you are going to hurl.

2022 is a breakout year for you. I will write about this more in my New Year’s article, but let me relate a story to you that is also true of you.

I walked into Starbucks a few days before Christmas. I hadn’t seen the barista in over a year. She recognized me. She looked at me for a moment, paused, and then said, “2022 is going to be your best year ever!” It’s the way she said it. With conviction, not just customer encouragement, as if it came from a deep source of truth, not just wishful thinking.

I believe her. I believe it is true for you.

This year is ending differently than 2020 did. Like we know we faced it and won. Like we hear about giants and grin. Because we know who the underdog is.