We’re into the final ten days before the Christmas holidays and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the end of the year is often a good time to take a bit of time to reflect and think about what we can do better in the New Year.
It’s a time of year where the inbox can start to slow down, meetings are cancelled and being completely honest, energy can start to dip whilst our minds start to switch off.
Most managers use this time to clear admin, wrap up loose ends, or simply count down the hours until a well-earned break.
But there is one other thing that I’d advise you to spend time on this week.
The good thing is that I promise that it won’t take that long – as little as 60 minutes if you’re strict about it. The chances are that this week, a meeting will get cancelled and instead of defaulting to “busy work” to replace it, take the chance to do something that you’ll rarely get the rest of the year: space to think.
Just 60-90 minutes of focused reflection can dramatically improve how you feel as you end the year and give you a focus for how you show up as a leader in the year ahead.
The process below isn’t about a grand strategy or trying to change the world. It’s simply about asking yourself the right questions, being honest with the answers and using this to carry momentum into the New Year.
A simple 60-minute process for a leadership self-assessment
This process doesn’t require a full day offsite or a blank notebook and a quiet cabin.
All you’ll need is:
- 60-90 uninterrupted minutes.
- A notebook or document to type notes into.
- Willingness to be honest with yourself, not performative
This isn’t a hard reset on your leadership skills, it’s tweaking and refining to find those extra little bits of performance.
Here is a 60 minute structure that you can use:
- 15 mins – Leadership self-assessment
- 15 mins – Team performance and development review
- 10 mins – What worked / didn’t work
- 10 mins – Leadership goals for next year
- 10 mins – Accountability actions
Of course, you can spend more time than this if you’re able to, but even just in this one hour of focused time, you can get a lot of clarity.
Let’s get into the details of each step.
1. Conduct an honest leadership self-assessment
Before you look at your team, start with yourself.
Not in a self-critical way, but in a factual one.
Ask yourself:
- When was I at my best as a leader this year?
- When was I most reactive, stretched, or unavailable?
- Where did I avoid a conversation I should have had?
- Where did I step up when it mattered?
- How consistent was I under pressure?
Then ask the harder question:
- If I were on my team, how would I describe my leadership this year?
This isn’t about guilt or picking holes in your performance. It’s about self awareness and knowing how you truly performed this year.
Leaders who are able to reflect on their own performance, are also able to improve faster than those who just move on and hope for the best.
2. Evaluate your team performance and development
Okay, now you can stop looking at yourself and looking at your team!
Zoom out and look at your team, not just their deliverables or output, but their growth.
Have a think about these questions and see what comes to mind:
- Who grew the most this year, and why?
- Who struggled, and what support did they actually get from me or others?
- Did I spend my time developing people, or just managing workloads?
- Where did the team thrive without me?
- Where did everything bottleneck through me?
Try to look for patterns amongst these answers, which may fall into areas such as:
- Are the same people always stepping up?
- Are others quietly disengaging?
- Do I truly know what each person wants next in their career?
Performance isn’t just what got delivered, it’s who became more capable along the way.
3. Think about what worked and what didn’t work this year
This step is about learning, not judging yourself or your team too harshly. What’s happened over the past year has happened – you can’t change it now. The value here is learning what to do more of next year and what to do less of.
Sketch out two columns in your notebook or create a table with two columns in your online document.
In the first column, write: ”what worked well” and write down things such as:
- Leadership behaviours that had a positive impact.
- Processes that made work easier.
- Meetings that were genuinely useful. (And those that became a bit stale).
- Communication styles that reduced confusion or created clarity.
- Decisions you’re glad you made. (And ones you may have avoided making).
Then in the second column, write “what didn’t work so well: and list things that include:
- Processes that created friction
- Priorities that were unclear or unrealistic
- Meetings that drained energy
- Areas where burnout crept in
- Moments where issues lingered too long
Then ask yourself: if I repeated this year exactly as it was, what would break first?
That answer is where your biggest leadership opportunity sits.
4. Set leadership goals for the next year (not business or team goals)
Most managers set goals for revenue, delivery, or output – and that’s fine. They’re an important part of the job and are tied very closely to team performance.
But very few managers set goals for how they lead. This is the intangible, yet so important part of being a manager. You can set KPIs for your team, but how are you going to be an effective manager that enables your team to hit them?
Next year, set yourself 3-5 leadership goals that may look like these:
- “I will give clearer feedback earlier.”
- “I will protect one-on-ones no matter how busy things get.”
- “I will delegate sooner instead of holding onto work.”
- “I will reduce reactive decision-making.”
- “I will build stronger relationships across teams.”
Sure, these don’t necessarily impact things like revenue or output directly, but they do have a big impact on your team and the likelihood of them impacting those goals.
A good leadership goal is about observable behaviours that are within your control.
Write these goals down and then ask yourself: if I hit these goals, how would my team experience me differently?
That’s the measure that matters.
5. Create systems for accountability for next year
Doing all of this reflection but not following through on it can mean that all of this work becomes quickly forgotten.
So, before you close your laptop or notebook for the holidays, put a few simple things in place.
Consider doing one or more of the following:
- Scheduling a January leadership check-in with yourself.
- Blocking time monthly for reflection and planning.
- Asking your manager or a peer to hold you accountable.
- Sharing one leadership intention with your team.
- Writing a short note to your future self about what matters most.
Most people struggle with accountability, both for themselves and their team. But it really doesn’t need to be that heavy.
Accountability is simply about doing that thing that you said you would.
The goal is momentum – not perfection.
To finish up, remember that your leadership won’t magically change or improve just because the calendar flips to January.
Yes, the New Year is a great time for change, but this change won’t happen overnight.
It changes when leaders pause, reflect, and choose to lead differently.
The final week before the holidays is a great time to do this, so take advantage and give yourself just an hour or two to reflect and choose what you’ll do differently next year.
You don’t need to overhaul everything.
You just need to ask yourself better questions and be honest with the answers.
Do that, and you won’t just return refreshed in the new year.
You’ll return clearer, calmer, and more intentional as a leader.
