Finding Clarity in the Year-End Clearing
December brings a peculiar challenge. As a leader, you’re expected to plan for the coming year—to set goals, establish priorities, and project confidence about a future you can’t fully see. But reacting and adapting to the current year’s constant disruptions has left you feeling exhausted, and the idea of creating detailed plans feels somewhere between futile and absurd.
Here’s the paradox: The best preparation for an uncertain future isn’t more planning—it’s reflection on what you’ve already navigated.
Think of yourself as a hiker, following a mountain trail on a day-long outing. You enter a clearing in the forest, and all of a sudden, you have a much better sense of your progress and the work that lies ahead of you.
What the year-end reflection offers you isn’t a detailed roadmap—it’s something more valuable: perspective.
When we power through, keeping our heads down and our eyes on the path immediately in front of us, we miss the opportunity to:
- See the terrain differently. From the clearing, what looked like impossible obstacles reveal themselves as challenges that you can face with confidence.
- Appreciate the journey. You can acknowledge the progress you have already made, the hurdles you have overcome, while remaining mindful of the work that still lies ahead of you.
- Chart your next moves with clarity. While your final destination might not yet be visible, the clearing helps you see where your next steps need to be taken.
This month’s toolkit offers several practices—some for you as an individual leader, some with your team—that will help you extract wisdom from 2025 and carry it into the year ahead.
Three Tools To Build Your Perspective
The Leader’s Year in Review – a structured process you can complete in 30-60 minutes to draw out key leadership insights
The Leadership Learning Harvest – a deeper reflection process to distill wisdom from critical experiences
The Team Learning Harvest – broaden this process with your team by adding more perspectives to the review process
Download the workbook with instructions for each activity.
Ready to Go Deeper?
Identifying and maintaining your focus on your Anchor Priorities by yourself will not be easy.
- If you are ready to develop this leadership practice and explore what it can look like to have support, book a complimentary 30-minute strategy call.