Year-end reflection is often tinged with good intentions and lasting insight, but too frequently, leaders are asked to spend this time either congratulating themselves or chastising themselves. Neither of these makes much space for wisdom.
As the year closes, rather than chasing either end of this performance spectrum, a more useful question is also simpler: what is worth carrying forward, and what is not?
This year asked a great deal of leaders. It demanded flexibility and patience; judgment under pressure and the ability to lead with incomplete information. A lot happened this year, both good and hard, and a part of what emerged deserves to be carried forward. Some of what was normalized, however, should not be.
Clarity, for instance, is worth carrying forward.
Leaders who discovered this year that clarity is more important than certainty are in a good place to make more of it. Clear priorities, clear communication, and clear decision making processes are what helped many teams stay grounded when conditions changed. The leaders who named what mattered most, and what could wait, reduced confusion and unnecessary stress. This is one of the elements of 2023 that will serve people and mission well into the new year.
Another thing to carry forward is the realization that leadership is not a solo act.
This year was a great reminder for many that the idea of leaders carrying everything is both unrealistic and unsustainable. Systems work best when there is distributed responsibility, when there is trust in the expertise of others, and when leaders make space for others to contribute in meaningful ways. A commitment to shared leadership does not absolve people of their responsibility, it deepens it. Continuing to invest in a more shared model of leadership is one of the good things to take into next year.
Trust is another thing to carry forward.
Leaders and teams who took the time to invest in relationships this year, found themselves better equipped to weather moments of strain. Trust made it possible to have difficult conversations this year, and enabled many teams to move through pressure without fracturing. Trust takes a long time to build, and a short time to lose. Protecting it as core infrastructure rather than the byproduct of success is one of the best lessons to keep.
There are also things, however, that this year brought to light, which should not be carried forward.
Normalization of overextension is one of them.
Many leaders and teams accomplished things this year by running themselves down, by operating in a state of chronic stretch. While this effort certainly deserves recognition, it should not be normalized. To carry forward the expectation that people will continuously absorb systemic gaps and inequities is to ensure burnout and attrition. Leaders would do well to treat overextension this year as a signal to redesign, not as a model to repeat.
Belief in urgency as a proxy for effectiveness is another thing to leave behind.
Urgency is not a moral posture; there is a time and place for it, but urgency becomes a problem when everything is urgent. This year brought a lot of reminders of how judgment is damaged when urgency is prioritized above all else. Clearing out a little chronic urgency creates room for better decisions and healthier cultures.
Leaders should also consider leaving behind the idea that leadership must always look confident and composed.
This year required some leaders to admit what they did not know, and to ask for help. It required many to correct course publicly. All of those things, did not make leaders look weak, they made them stronger. Carrying forward a more human and honest model of leadership is the kind of core strengthening choice that builds credibility and trust. Leaving behind the performative certainty required less of some and more of others will help leaders build more resilient organizations.
As the year winds down, a few questions to ask in reflection might be helpful.
- What practices helped sustain both people and performance?
- Where did we fall into patterns of individual effort masking system limitations?
- What conversations did we avoid that must happen next year?
- What expectations no longer serve the work or the people doing it?
These questions are not the product of critique. They are tools of discernment.
The purpose of year-end reflection is not to make the past perfect, but to make the future better, more intentional. Leadership at this moment is less about summing up and more about choosing wisely what continues.
As you step into next year, may you carry forward what strengthened your leadership this year, and leave behind what quietly depleted it. That choice, made with honesty and care, is itself an act of leadership.