5 Tips for Busy Leaders to Host an Inspiring End of Year Team Wrap Up Session

As the year comes to a close, many leaders find themselves navigating the delicate balance between juggling end of year reviews, fighting those fires and supporting the leaders they oversee to do the same.

In the midst of hectic schedules and demanding responsibilities, taking a moment for reflection and celebration may seem like a nice to have, but trust me, it's essential.

Why?

Acknowledging and recognising your teams efforts is critical to maintain engagement and loyalty. At this time of year, your team are tired and celebrating wins will give everyone a huge energy boost and set your team up for a strong start in 2024.

In this article, you'll discover how to facilitate meaningful end-of-year reflection and celebration session with your team so they feel seen, heard and valued. I usually recommend starting this meeting by sharing Q1 objectives (briefly no more than 15 mins) so everyone knows what they are coming back to after the holidays. But the main objective of this session is to celebrate each other after a year well done.

1. Delegate and Empower: In the spirit of true leadership, consider delegating the task of organszing the end-of-year reflection session to your team leaders.

This is one of the nicer tasks they'll get to do all year, so give them that gift. Instead of hosting a traditional end of year wrap up meeting in a death by powerpoint format, encourage them to make it exciting!

I recommend you brand it a 'End of Year Reflection and Celebration Session', or better yet, ask them to come up with a fun engaging name themselves, in line with your company culture and ethos.

Be clear the purpose of the meeting is to reflect on achievements, celebrate personal and team wins and highlight what worked really well this past year so you can do more of it next year.

2. Provide a Set of Reflective Questions: To avoid being met with blank faces when you ask your team what they've done well, encourage them to reflect in advance. Encourage them to prepare by grabbing a pen and paper or a blank word doc and answering the following thought-provoking questions:

1. What specific accomplishments or milestones are you most proud of achieving this year, either individually or as a team?

2. Reflecting on challenges faced, what are the key lessons learned, and how do you envision implementing improvements based on those insights?

3. In what ways have you personally grown or developed in your role, and how has this contributed to the team's success?

4. Looking ahead, what are your aspirations and goals for the upcoming year, and how do you see them aligning with the team's overall objectives?

5. Reflecting on our teamwork this year, how can we further strengthen collaboration and amplify our collective impact in the coming year?

3. Build a Culture of Celebration: Encourage your team members to take ownership of their successes by having them present their personal and team successes during the 'Reflect and Celebrate' meeting.

Ask them to celebrate each other too. Whether through a couple of slides or an informal discussion, the goal is to empower individuals to articulate and own their accomplishments with confidence.

This is not something that's natural to most people, but it's the kind of culture you want to build to boost performance. This not only increases their confidence but also creates a culture of accountability and celebration of wins within the team.

4. Aligning Aspirations with Team Objectives: Looking ahead to the upcoming year, it's important to align individual aspirations with the companies overall objectives.

Encourage your own people leaders to set clear goals for their own personal and professional development, and that of their team, that align with the company strategic direction.

This alignment ensures a cohesive and synchronized effort towards shared goals, fostering unity and synergy among team members.

5. Strengthening Collaboration for Collective Impact: Discussing how you worked together as a team and cross functionally or with external stakeholders is a pivotal aspect of end-of-year reflections.

Ask questions that prompt your team to consider how collaboration can be enhanced in the coming year. You could ask prompt a group discussion by asking questions like:

1. How can we improve communication channels within our own team to improve collaboration next year?
2. How can we improve communication channels with our key stakeholders and customers to improve collaboration next year?
3. What specific initiatives or strategies have proven successful this year, and how can we build on these in the future?
4. In what ways can we leverage technology or tools like Microsoft teams or Slack to streamline collaboration and enhance team productivity in the next year?
5. What meetings do you attend that you feel are non value add? What is your suggestion to still deliver on the objective while removing this meeting?

Feel free to add your own to suit your needs.

In summary, make year-end reflections a team effort... and allow it to be fun! Delegate, celebrate, own the wins, grow personally, align those goals, and focus on communication and collaboration.

Business is as much about looking back as it is looking forward so you can get more strategic and intentional with your leadership next year.

About the Author

When it comes to instilling confidence and accelerating success, Lucy Gernon is the #1 Executive Coach in the world for ambitious, family-oriented women in leadership who want to unlock their potential and accelerate their impact while maintaining balance in their lives.

She is also the CEO and Founder of 3SIXTY Leaders Club – an exclusive membership for female leaders who want to accelerate their impact and potential through leadership development and mindset mastery, so they can build a life filled with success, balance and happiness… where anything is possible. 

She's a mother of 3, Multi-Award Winning Businesswoman and holds many qualifications including a Masters Degree in Science and is International Coach Federation certified Professional Coach.

Lucy hosts "The 360 LeadHERship Podcast," which frequently ranks as the #1 Careers Podcast on Apple and is among the top 10% of the most shared on Spotify globally. 

Lucy is also an acclaimed International Speaker, delivering keynotes and training for events and to corporate teams (both male and female) in the areas of female empowerment, career acceleration, productivity, mindset, confidence and leadership.

She has more than two decades of experience in the corporate world and has supported countless ambitious, family-focused women in leadership globally to unlock their leadership potential and accelerate their impact. When it comes to instilling confidence and self-belief, Lucy is the #1 Executive Coach in the world.

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