Closing Your Year with Intention

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Perry Holley:
Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader, increase your ab to influence others, and increase your ability to fully engage your team to deliver remarkable results. I am Perry Holley, a Maxwell Leadership facilitator and coach.

Chris Goede:
And I’m Chris Goede, Executive Vice President with Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining once again. As we get started, we’d love for you to go to MaxwellLeadership.com/ExecutivePodcast and there there’s an option for you to to click on a button and submit a form if you got a question. As we said in the last podcast, Perry’s looking for content. So what are you? What leadership struggles are you biggest challenge? Yeah, also if you’re interested in executive level coaching or some leadership coaching for your team or training, you can leave that on that form as well and we’ll follow back up with you. Well, today’s topic is titled as we kind of wrap things up here, closing your year with intention. And this episode is all about one of the most important, but yet I think overlooked areas for leaders at the end of the year. Whereas how do you set some time aside to intentionally reflect and reset where you’re at as a leader? I know my tendency sometimes is to just blow right past that and automatically start thinking about Q1 and January and goals.

Chris Goede:
But to be able to think better, to be able to reflect, to reset where I’m at as a leader and then to realign with what I’m trying to go after is something that is super, super precious. And so a lot of times I know I get to the end of the year, and I’m. I’m exhausted and I will go.

Perry Holley:
You know what?

Chris Goede:
I don’t want to think about that anymore. But this is something that we do here in our organization. John Maxwell has led this for us for a long time. Marco, our CEO, does it as well. And they spend a week or two and review every single thing on the calendar and then determined, well, what are they going to carry over? What are they going to do differently? What does that look like? And as John likes to say, experience isn’t the best teacher evaluated. Experience is. And so we’ve got to take time to reflect on what that looked like.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, it can be easy just to cruise at the end, especially if you’ve chasing a number all year and you’re trying to.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And then your clients are not in the office anymore and it’s kind of slowed to a halt. But John has taught us well that this is an opportunity to take those. It’s a discipline that you put in and reflection about. Like you said, Jonathan, take the entire calendar for the year and make decisions. Was that a good use of time? Was that a bad use? Did that have value? Did that, you know, move the ball? Did that not. Should I do that? Should I not do those types of things? When you, if you don’t reflect, you potentially going into repeating bad choices, bad mistakes you may have made before. When you pause to reflect, you can start to see patterns. And that’s kind of what the idea here is to look at what energized you, what energized the team, what drained the team, where did we move the needle? And once I’ve got that, I can begin to make a plan for the new year.

Perry Holley:
And so I thought this in a few minutes, we have here just maybe be a little practical, give some ideas and tips, maybe from our own experience, what we’ve done, what John teaches about how to end your year with intention and start the next year on a fast pace.

Chris Goede:
You used the word just a minute ago. Discipline. I think that’s key because I can get to a place. If I’m not disciplined enough, I’ll get distracted and not follow through. And so I like that word of God. This is, we’ll call it an easy process, but it’s not simple, especially with all the things you’re trying to close the year out with and, and get running in 2026. And so got to be disciplined through it. So as we look at this, let’s talk a little bit about the reflection part of it.

Chris Goede:
And I love this. What are three. Here’s the first kind of reflection question, because maybe you’re sitting here saying, all right, I’m going to do this, and I’m gonna sit down with my journal and I. Where do I start? And this is what we’re going to help you with today. Some. Some very practical, simple things that you can dive into. So what are three wins and three lessons that you can dive into? So take maybe an hour or so of this day that you set aside and write down three things that went exceptionally well for you this year. And why.

Chris Goede:
Why do you think they went well? You see, a lot of people just evaluate and scrutinize things that don’t go well and try to learn from them. And I think there’s a lot to learn from those things that you did well.

Perry Holley:
And.

Chris Goede:
And then the other thing is three things that didn’t go well, and then what did you learn from them? And then I love this is when you have those things kind of written out. Are there any patterns like, what do you see that is common between that. Is there any connections between the wins or maybe connections between the lessons you learned on some of the things that didn’t go well? The reason being is that if there are some patterns, especially on the wins, if it’s even something as simple as a mindset or a process or you want to double down on that going forward, and then, you know, with the lessons learned, obviously those are things you want to make sure that are in your awareness going forward as a leader.

Perry Holley:
You could also do a team retrospective kind of a meeting, looking back, you know, conversation, asking, you know, you’re in review type of a meeting with the team. I like questions like, you know, what did we do this year that we’re most proud of? What. What, you know, you said about what really went well. But what are we most proud of? Did we solve some problem? Did we do something for a client? What was it that really that stood out, what we do? Maybe another question would be, what challenged us the most? Where did we struggle? And we might have gotten through it, but was it really a great use of our time? And then the old, you know, standby I like is based on what we’re looking at, what should we stop, start or continue doing in 2026? Where? What in the next year we start doing something new Based on these reflections, we should stop doing something that’s in the way, or we should continue, but with caution to make sure we keep monitoring that. But let everyone have a voice. Let make sure that you capture the insights publicly for people to be able to reflect on later and that you can publish those. So people look at. But it’s a great ongoing conversation that begins about this time of year to say, hey, let’s look at where we’ve come from and where the energy was, where it wasn’t, what we succeeded at, what we didn’t.

Perry Holley:
And then what can we learn from that?

Chris Goede:
We’re coming at it today from a lens of a team, of organization, of your leadership. So it’s a professional side, but these are extremely relative to your personal side as well. And cross this over, right? Maybe you have two different sides of the paper, one’s personal and one’s professional. Perry also said as he was wrapping up there about having the team speak into what they’re seeing and what they’re feeling. And. And I just did this very intentionally this past year leading into my time aways. I wanted to get where the team was. And so Perry asked me if I would share the.

Chris Goede:
The questions that I posed to the team earlier in December, late November for them. Now, this is not directly for me. This is. Elon Musk has a couple of rules around strategic thinking. And so it pulled it out of there. So I asked the team these five questions. Then I gave them a bonus one. I gave them about a week or so to think about it and then had them email me their thoughts.

Chris Goede:
And I’m going to use that as a launching pad into part of my reflection time. So the first one is, what are some requirements that we can make? I put on here straight from Elon, less dumb, right? Like, are there things that we are. Have requirements in place that they don’t need to be there, they don’t make sense to us or to the client. It makes me think a lot about Nido Cabane, about remove the irritant, right? Like, why are we creating something that’s a requirement if it’s. If it’s irritant to our team or to our customer? Second one was, are there steps that we’re currently doing in your role specific that are unnecessary? How do we get rid of them? What does that look like? And I did have them look at this as their individual role, but also collectively to be able to speak into other people’s business. And I had some people that were like, are you sharing all of these? I was like, nope, these are for me and you can just tell me what you’re thinking and I’ll protect the innocent. The third one was how do we simplify what we do the way that you can scale whatever you’re doing is to get as simple as possible. And when you’re super complex, it has a hard time translating directly into scaling the business at the right pace.

Chris Goede:
So we got to get ourselves a little bit more simple in how we’re doing things. Number four, how do we speed up our. Our cycle time? What we do is what I would say is our cycle time. And so everything from in internal communication and processes to external fulfillment to external communication. How do we speed up our cycle time? And then fifth, and you guys probably know this from, if you’re a fan of Elon, is what are we doing that we need to automate? And I’m sure that we’re gonna have a lot to work on in the next year around that.

Perry Holley:
And Perry with AI.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re not doing that. And then finally, bonus question. I said to them, I said, hey, what would we need to do? Give me five things or so that if we were to increase our revenue to X, whatever that is, what would it take for us to be able to do that? If we were to increase our impact on organizations and leaders around the world, what would that take? What does that look like? And so we just had those conversations now, why did I do this one? I want them to. Perry’s point, and he set it up. I want their voice to be heard and where we’re going in 26 and the changes that we are going to need to make and we’re going to get better. And if their voice is in it, well, then they’re going to be in the change and the things that we’re doing differently going forward. So that’s kind of how to retrospect leading into the conversation of a year.

Perry Holley:
And so thought the team responded pretty positively to that and thinking through. And we don’t ever take the time to. We’re just going, going, going, going and going fast. And this was an opportunity that less dumb, more automation, fewer steps.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
Start, stop, continue, where are we? And all that. Yeah.

Chris Goede:
And I called him off guard because I haven’t done this before. And so I took one of our team meetings and just called him off guard and. But man, it was great feedback. So the third one. Moving on now. The third one is the letting go list. Yeah, I’m smiling because, you know, I mean, I got a lot of things that I’m not letting go. Right.

Chris Goede:
Personally and professionally. And so I think about, you know, I was like, have you touched that or worn that or done it in a year? No. Well, Then.

Perry Holley:
But I might.

Chris Goede:
But let’s get rid of it, right? Like, what are we going to let it. What are we going to let it go? And, and for me, I know that, you know, I get to a place even I get to the year end and I’m like, well, I still got, you know, 15 things I got to cross off the list of projects I’m working on. Well, maybe I need to let those go and not carry them into the new year and do them. And this is something that you got to give yourself permission to start to do. It’s not easy, but it makes me think about, man, if we’re going to say yes to some really, really great things, it means we have to say no to some really good things. And where is that focus? And so we need to make sure that we are letting go of some things that we don’t need to be focused on so we can focus on the things that we’re really, really created to do.

Perry Holley:
So once you’ve done this, these steps of reflection and where we’ve done where we’re going, those type of things, thinking about really the next step is around alignment with, especially around your purpose and resetting. It’s not really for the new year is not just about goals, it’s about our purpose. So I like asking myself personally, and it’s like he said, it’s really good insight. Well, for you personally, this is some good questions, but also for the team, kind of the grounding questions of why do we exist as a team? What value do we create? What is it we do now? We have the advantage on our team that we actually are a product of the product. And so we spend time every week looking at our core values and our mission, purpose statement. And we say it out loud and we actually give examples of how we’re seeing it fulfilled. So that is top of mind, I would say, on our team. But a lot of teams I’ve been on have never done that.

Perry Holley:
So really revisiting why do you exist as a team? Another question would be who are we here to serve? And obviously, if you have, you have customers and clients, but are there business partners, are there others, is there internal clients or the people inside the organization being clear on what’s our purpose and who do we serve? And then the third question was how we bring our best energy to that mission in the coming year. And that could go back to some of your questions I like around it. What’s. What could be hindering the energy we bring to serving that client in this purpose or that stakeholder in this purpose. And you know, one thing I took away from a podcast we did a few weeks ago on Burnout, on the quiet cracking and the burnout thing was that burnout wasn’t described. It wasn’t about doing too much like being. Not about being overworked. It was a feeling of being overwhelmed.

Perry Holley:
And the overwhelm came as I’m doing a bunch of work that I’m not really sure why it matters. And I thought, man, this is a great exercise to really think, you know, your job as a leader to see the connection between, help everybody see the connection between their daily work and the overriding purpose of what we do. And I think, again, we have a great advantage here, because we do this every week, is that there’s no way I could be unclear on what I do every day as I write, speak, teach and coach. Who my customer is is the people that we and who we serve. And that my purpose in is to add value to the lives of others who are multiplying value to others. So it, I think if other organizations really dug into this, yeah, we’re going to reflect, but we’re also going to.

Chris Goede:
Realign, have to do that. And then as you’re resetting and you’re thinking about this kind of realignment and resetting where you’re at as you’re wrapping up the air, one of the things that, that I think about is what, what drives energy for you as a leader or for your team or focus. And so here’s a another three questions. Again, this is just very practical. Maybe some of you, again, have never done this before. We want to give you some questions and some thoughts to just begin journaling and before you know it, you’ll be off and running. But three of them around this topic is what energized you and the team the most during that year? And you’re going to have to go back. I have to do this.

Chris Goede:
I got to go back and look at my calendar and my travel schedule because I forget all the stuff that our team has done that we’re. That energized us. You know, probably what are we, you know, at the end of the year here? So probably the first 11 months I have a short memory, right. So I got to go back and look at that. The second one is what are we doing that no longer aligns with our priorities? Tying on to what Perry was saying. Where is there a disconnect between those two? And then finally, what deserves more focus next year for your leadership, for your influence, for your team for your family, whatever it might be you need to think about. What do I need to refocus?

Perry Holley:
Yeah, thinking about also you, you did a nice exercise with us based around the purpose factor for asking each of us and we’re going to talk about this more in the new year. We have a podcast coming up. We’re going to look into the purpose factor and Brian and Gab and what they do. And it’ll be, I think it’ll be very interesting to our listeners as it was for our team to say. But you asked a great question. Once we looked at each of our individual purposes. You ask us to reflect on how the work that we do, where was our was our energy and from where we feel our purpose is. Was it reflected in our work that we did? And I guess you did that from a point of view of how can I help you find a place here?

Chris Goede:
That and how do we help find purpose? Your purpose in the role that you’re doing.

Perry Holley:
Yes.

Chris Goede:
Right. Because your purpose is not job agnostic. Right. You can find your purpose in the role that you currently are for the most part. And it’s my job as a leader to try to help them figure that out.

Perry Holley:
Yeah. Just before we wrap up, just, you know, we talked a lot about reflection and realignment and those types of things and purpose, that’s all important. But any, any type of closing the year with intention and starting the year with purpose needs to be have a component in there about what are you going to be your priorities. So obviously after you’ve done this reflection and this alignment, thinking through what are your top priorities for Q1, as you look at your goals for next year, what needs to happen in Q1? It’s probably not 10 things, it’s probably three things that you’re really focused on and help guide the energy and your team with clarity around what it is we’re trying to attack. And so when I have those priorities now, I can just make a plan and that plan is turning those priorities into maybe one page action steps that say this is what we’re doing, aiming for and this is the steps we’re going to take, assigning owners and deadlines and you know, key measures, KPIs, those types of things. But over planning, that can really kill momentum, under planning can kill accountability. So I really want to make sure that we give our teams a quick start in the new year with a plan and action steps that they all know without a doubt what they should be working on and help keep people clear and not cluttered on what’s happening going forward.

Chris Goede:
So many of us and people that I coach and the Perry coaches and our team, they don’t take enough time to step back and think on the business. They. They’re in it and they’re grinding it. We tried to communicate that through this episode today about we understand that we’re driving for year end and we understand that then we want to kick the year off the right way. I’ve led sales teams where we were working till the very last day in the last hour. And so it may not be, you know, at the end of the year, but it could be at the first week or second week. What we’re saying is the importance of doing it to step out and, and get yourself to a place to where you’re, you’re reflecting and you’re realigning and you’re making sure that we’re resetting where we’re at. Now.

Chris Goede:
Here’s the thing that we want you to understand is that as you go through this as a leader and I think this is a great point I’m going to wrap up with this is is you have to communicate the change with clarity. Well, the only way to do that is for you to be clear. And I have been in a lot of situations where I don’t think the leader was extremely clear on where the leader wanted to go or what he wanted to change or reset or realign. And so make sure that you have extreme clarity and you’ve taken time and almost kind of written it out. Written it out like the why behind some of the things that we’re going to be doing differently. Part of the reason I mentioned just a few minutes ago that I had the team speak into it is because as I go through and I share with them throughout this next year, some of the different changes, their input on the front end is going to give them a head start on the buy in. And in addition to the overall why of some of the things we’re doing a little bit differently because change is never easy, no matter how small or how large it is. And what we’re talking about really is setting the stage for some changes that you’re going to make as a leader.

Chris Goede:
So as you communicate this, a couple of points here in closing are super important. Share what is changing and when and why the you need to do that because everybody receives information differently. So you got to cover your basis there. Celebrate what’s staying the same. I like you and I were talking the gap in the game before like, like this is what we gained this year right, there’s some gaps and so these are some of the things that we’re going to change and it’s how you approach that and celebrate those things that are going to be staying the same because of the gains that you guys made as a team. And then finally paint a picture of where we are heading for that next year or that next sprint, whatever it might be a quarter we run on quarters with us and our focus. And so make sure you’re clear yourself, you’re clear on the why, you’re clear on the the direction. If you can get buy in from the team ahead of time to help your thinking, that’s great.

Chris Goede:
And then you can communicate it to the team.

Perry Holley:
Fantastic. Great insights. Reminder. You can get all this captured for you in the Learner Guide which is available at MaxwellLeadership.com/Podcast. You can also learn about our other offerings there five levels of leadership and our other podcast offerings. You can also leave as a comment or a question there. We love hearing from you. Very grateful you’d spend this time with us.

Perry Holley:
That’s all from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.

Transcript created by Castmagic.