Leading well, as the year ends

Heading into the last calendar month of the year, every executive wants to wrap things up before the holidays in a good way. But if an office party is the extent of your plans, you’re missing an annual opportunity to make meaningful conversations happen.

In busy organizations, our attention naturally stays focussed on the next big thing that’s coming at us. But how often does your team take time to look back, reflect and learn from their experiences together? If your organization went through significant change, loss, or growth in the past year, consider ways to talk about it together at year's end. While these conversations may surface useful insights, the goal isn’t to force positivity. It’s enough to create space where your team can talk through the ups and downs of the past year, and know they aren’t alone in their experiences.

Just asking simple questions can open up a great conversation: In the past year, what was the biggest challenge for our team? What did we achieve? What did we learn? These conversations will provide insights not just into past events, but about how your team perceived them.

While everyone’s focussed on wrapping up this year in a good way, it’s also the perfect time to decide how you’ll open up the new year. In the short term, many people are counting the days and looking forward to some well-deserved time off. Meanwhile, the challenges you’ll face in the new year may already be looming: deliverables with accelerated deadlines, mergers and restructuring, or strategies and plans to develop.

Even if you can’t get it all done before the holidays, this is a time of year when “planning to plan” actually works. My clients are already reserving workshop dates for strategy development and change management planning in January and February. Sometimes, just carving out that time in advance lifts the pressure and gives you peace of mind, because you know that when your team regroups in January you’ll have the space you need for the discussions and planning that needs to get done.

Two of my clients are observing year-end by giving their employees the gift of individual coaching sessions. Coaching is an investment that makes your employees feel valued and appreciated.  We not only focus on enhancing leadership skills, but also explore new approaches to managing stress – which makes everyone more effective in their work, and helps us stay healthy.

Endings and beginnings are powerful times; they allow us to find meaning in the past and create hope for the future. Whatever way you use this time of year to give your organization a boost, don’t let this opportunity pass you by!