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A leadership expert has explained how business leaders can conduct an end-of-the-year review in December if they want to start the New Year on a positive footing.
Drew Povey, founder of the Drew Povey Consultancy, says it is important that teams conduct reviews of the year so they can make smarter decisions over the next 12 months.
“A lot of people in mid to end of November get exhausted. Add in Christmas, and the stress of finances, family events, and work parties, and it’s actually quite a tricky time of year.
“But despite that, I believe it is the best time to take on that end-of-year review rather than wait until January.
“There’s a logic to this: January is an incredibly depressing month. We’re on diets, we’re not drinking, and the next Bank Holiday is weeks away – not to mention the weather is tedious at best.
“It’s really easy to fall into a negativity trap, and we’re already conditioned to look for the things that went wrong, rather than those that were successful. That’s not a mindset that will motivate a team.
“Instead, we should be saying we want to leave 2025 by gathering together all the wins and the learnings and move into 2026 on a positive note.”
Here is Drew’s guide to a successful end-of-year review:
Ask, what’s worth celebrating?
Our brains are hardwired to see the problems. It’s an evolutionary defence mechanism also known as the negativity bias, which existed to keep early humans safe.
In today’s world, what it does is point a great big neon arrow at everything which didn’t go according to plan – and it’s exhausting.
We have the negatives living rent-free in our heads, so what we should be focusing on is the successes.
So, write down your top 10 stand out moments – and this is where your phone comes into play.
Go to the photo album on your phone, scroll back to January, and work your way through. Because I guarantee you’ll be amazed at how many cool things you have done, both at work but also in your life.
By the time December comes around, you’ve probably forgotten a lot of what you did over the previous 12 months, and the problem will be editing the list down to ten.
Ask, what are your three biggest learnings?
We can’t say goodbye to 2025 without taking what we’ve learned into 2026.
But to combat that negativity bias, again, my advice is to pick your three big wins from the year.
Again, they can be from work, from outside of work, or a combination of both. Where the learnings come from doesn’t really matter; what does matter is pulling out those standout moments and using them to bounce into the New Year on a positive note.
Ask, what was your best decision?
Narrowing the wins down further, ask yourself, ‘What was the best decision I’ve made this year?’
I’m sure we can all respond with the bad choices and make a list of them, but again, how is that motivational? How will that help to drive a team to success?
One of the hardest things about being a leader is the decision-making and the responsibility that comes with those choices, so celebrate the win.
Ask, what’s worth deliberating?
This isn’t the part where we say, ‘now we’ve done the positives we’re going to focus on the negatives’; this is where you can be honest but balanced about choices you made where an alternative may have been better.
But hindsight is always done with 20:20 vision so the key is to use a very simple mode: stop, start, continue, change.
Stop: what is it we need to stop doing? Because success and leadership is not just about doing more, it’s about doing things better. And that may include stopping activities or behaviours which simply aren’t working.
Start: There are always things people say, ‘we should do this!’ – Great: let’s get on and start it.
Continue: This is the part people often forget, and it will come from that earlier work of looking at your successes from the year. Simply, what are we doing well that we can celebrate and continue? Let’s make sure we don’t forget first what we learned last.
Change: This isn’t about berating yourself or your team; it’s not about right or wrong but about what could be made better.
Finally, describe your year in a sentence
Once you’ve gone through the top 10 stand-out moments, the learnings, and the good decisions, now describe your year in a sentence.
Having done the review from a positive note but without ignoring the challenges, this is that snapshot of your year with the negativity bias put to one side.
Also read: Leadership expert: Conflict isn’t the enemy, it can bring teams together
Image source: Drew Povey
