ELISE’S NOTE

As the year comes to a close, it’s easy to get caught up in deadlines and miss out on those valuable moments for reflection and growth. In my work helping leaders integrate learning into their daily routines, I’ve found that the best gift you can give yourself this time of year is the space to reflect on your progress — neatly wrapped in our 1 Minute Summary so you can dive in right away.

IN BRIEF
End of year deadlines often distract us from capitalising on valuable growth opportunities. These three steps will help you take charge of your career development and leverage insights from the past year to shape the one ahead.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

• Take a moment. It’s easy to feel mentally frantic at the end of a year. Slow down to speed up by pressing pause and taking perspective on both things that you’ve done well and the mistakes you can learn from throughout the year. Ask yourself 'quiet questions,' spending five minutes on each of the following questions for a deeper response: What have you learned this year? What are you most proud of? Who has supported your success? Which strengths have contributed to your wins? What’s one thing you’d do differently?

• Review your progress. Include other people in this process as they can shed light on insights about you that you’re unaware of. Find a trusted colleague and ask them to partner with you on your review, scheduling time to answer questions together. These could include questions like: What three words best capture this past year? What moments were most fulfilling or challenging? When were you at your best? What dented your confidence? What was the most valuable thing you read, watched or listened to?

• Accelerate your application. Be specific when translating the insights that you’ve gained from the previous year into actions to improve your future. Set clear developmental goals by creating a ‘focus finder’ tool to help you highlight key actions across important areas. Use ‘I will’ in your statements to frame your thinking and put your answers where you’ll be regularly reminded of them. Identify one learning goal you’ll pursue, a habit you’ll commit to, one person to have a career conversation with, how you will support someone else and one mistake you won’t repeat.