Yep, There’s Still Time! 6 Questions For Your ‘Not-Too-Late’ Year-End Review

Okay, maybe you missed it. The holiday season got busy and you totally dropped the ball. In all of the year-end fatigue and hustle, you didn’t sit down with your team to review the past year. If you did an initial review, that’s great and we are going to help you raise the bar with a few simple tweaks.

First of all, it’s not a review, it’s a preview. At Level 52, we call it a YEP (Year-End Preview). After all, past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour, so it’s really about engaging in powerful discussions and getting clear and intentional about what’s yet to come.

Celebrate, course correct and design a plan for what’s next. If you engage in a powerful discussion, it will be a preview of successful development and not the same broken record of stagnation and disappointment.

Read our post, 6 Skills Every Leader Needs which will help you dive in.

6 questions that will help you with your YEP.

1. What did your team do last year that you are really proud of?
Be curious about their accomplishments. Genuinely celebrate them and acknowledge the behaviours that led to their success.

2. What do you know your team can do this year as a result of last year?
Remind them what they are capable of. This creates repetition that can strengthen their confidence. This will also set the foundation for your next question.

3. What is the next level for your team to reach?
Deep down we all want to grow and create a bigger impact. After celebrating their past success, help them see what else is possible. Be a champion for your team to reach a little further.

4. What would make this your team’s best year yet?
Let’s blow the roof off the status quo and allow them to dream. This will give you great insight into their deep values, what they truly want and where they want to go. Better yet, if you can make it your mission to help them get there, you’ll have discretionary effort, incredible engagement and be a life-long advocate because you are focusing on them as humans and not just the role they play in your bigger chess game.

5. How does your team need to be different in order to achieve that?
In order to raise the roof on what’s possible, we can’t be stuck in the old behaviours that keep us there. How do you need to be different? Speak up more? Take risks? Whatever it is, once you know it, as their leader, you can hold the space for them to stretch into those behaviours, give feedback and course correct.

6. How would you need to be different in order to help your team get here?
Let’s face it. Many bosses simply get in the way of their people’s development. To make this the best year yet for your people, how would you need to be different? Do you need to hold accountability better? Communicate more clearly? This question gives them the chance to design their perfect boss. You won’t be a pushover, but let them customize you a little to work with their personal operating systems.

The YEP might be the catalyst that you need to raise the bar on your leadership and achieve more through your people. If nothing else, start with these six questions and you will have a head start on a great year ahead.