.png)
Your Finish Line is Bigger Than You Think: How Your Year-end Leadership Helps Others Finish Strong
There’s something about the final quarter of the year that makes the calendar feel a little louder. Goals we set in January are suddenly looking back at us, and the question becomes: What can I still accomplish before the year ends?
It’s a fair question. But as leaders, we have another one to consider:
How is the way I’m pursuing my goals affecting the people around me?
I started WeInspireWe on one simple belief: everyone is a leader, and every leader can inspire many. That belief matters just as much in the busy, imperfect moments of a year-end push as it does when we have time to thoughtfully plan our next steps. Especially then, actually.
Our focus and drive don’t stay contained within us. It ripples outward to our teams through our decisions, conversations, expectations, and responses when something doesn’t go as planned.
In her recent article, “Last-Quarter Push: Focus and Drive,” my colleague Audrey LaMere encourages us to reflect on five areas of wellbeing and choose where intentional effort will matter most. Once we’ve clarified that focus, we can take it one step further: How can our leadership help others move toward success, too?
As a leader, your focus becomes someone else’s workload.
Imagine a leader walking into a Monday meeting with three important year-end priorities. By Wednesday, two new ideas have joined the list. On Friday, a request arrives marked “urgent.” Nothing has officially come off the plate.
Each request may make sense on its own. Together, they leave people trying to guess what matters most—and wondering how they’ll get it all done.
Now imagine that same leader saying, “This new opportunity matters. To give it the attention it needs, we’re moving this other project into January.”
That decision has a ripple effect. Someone can plan their week with more confidence. A colleague gets a clearer handoff. The team has a better chance of doing meaningful work well.
Focus becomes useful to others when we communicate the choices that go with it. What are we prioritizing? What can wait? What does success actually look like?
Before adding the next request, ask yourself: Have I helped people understand what they can set aside?
How Does Your Drive Feel to Others?
Determination can be a powerful strength. It helps us persist, solve problems, and keep moving when progress gets difficult. It can also make it easy to assume everyone has the same energy, capacity, or sense of urgency we do.
We may think we’re communicating enthusiasm while someone else hears disappointment. We may believe we’re being helpful by checking in frequently while another person feels they’re no longer trusted to deliver.
Authentic leadership asks us to pay attention to that gap between intention and impact. We can honor our natural strengths while adjusting how we use them.
Consider asking someone you work with: “As we head toward year-end, what am I doing that helps you move forward? What could I adjust?”
Then make room for an honest answer. The point is to learn something you can act on.
Sometimes the biggest push is removing a barrier.
When a goal is slipping, our instinct may be to ask people to work harder or move faster. Before doing that, it helps to understand what’s slowing them down.
Picture a capable colleague who is ready to move a project forward but is waiting on your approval. Another reminder about the deadline won’t resolve the delay. Your decision might.
Or consider someone who keeps bringing every small choice back to you. A conversation about what they can decide independently could help them build confidence and free both of you to focus.
Helping others succeed can be very practical: clarifying ownership, connecting people who need to collaborate, making a timely decision, or matching work to someone’s strengths.
And this applies whether you lead a department, contribute to a project, run a business, or influence people in your community. Everyone has opportunities to make progress easier for someone else.
What Will People Carry into Next Year
Of course, the results matter. We have commitments to honor, customers to serve, and goals worth pursuing.
But December’s accomplishments aren’t the only things that continue into January. People also carry the experience of how those accomplishments happened.
Did they gain confidence in their judgment? Did they discover a strength they hadn’t fully recognized? Did they learn they could raise a concern early and receive support? Did working together strengthen the relationship?
Those are meaningful outcomes, too. They influence what people feel ready to take on next.
A strong finish can help build the capability and trust that make future success possible.
A Small Reflection With a Wider Impact
As you plan the remaining weeks of this year, take a few minutes to consider:
What is the most important outcome I want to help achieve—and do the people involved understand why it matters?
Because of how I’m leading right now, what is becoming easier or harder for others?
Whose strengths could I recognize and give more room to contribute?
What is one barrier I could remove this week?
Who are we becoming as we work toward these goals?
Choose one answer and turn it into an action. Have the conversation. Make the decision. Clarify the priority. A small shift in how you lead can change someone else’s experience of the entire week.
There is still time to make meaningful progress this year. As you focus your energy on the finish line, consider the people whose success you can influence along the way.
Who are you helping across the finish line?
Tami Chapek is the Founder and CEO of WeInspireWe and author of Leadership reDEFYned: Defy the Ordinary to Unleash Your Potential. She believes everyone is a leader, regardless of title, tenure, age, or gender, and helps people lead authentically, use their strengths intentionally, and inspire greater impact.
Want to explore how your leadership can create a stronger ripple effect? Schedule a free strategy session with Tami or any of the coaches on the WeInspireWe team to clarify your focus and identify how you can support your own success and the success of those around you.
Comments