Turning Reflections Into Results: Your End-of-Year Guide to Goal-Setting and Team Success
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
As the end of the year approaches, we're all given a brief but powerful window to turn our hopes for the future into actionable plans.
It’s an opportunity that often gets lost in the shuffle as we try to wrap up the current year’s goals. But making the time for reflection and planning is one of the most impactful things you can do—not only for yourself but also for your team.
I've been there, racing to close out December and falling short on setting clear priorities for the next year. The feeling of rushing into January without a clear direction is unsettling, to say the least. But over the years, I've found that making space for reflection and planning has become one of the cornerstones of my professional approach. When I lead myself through annual goal-setting, I find that what I set out to achieve often becomes my reality—and then some.
If you manage a team - you should also be leading your team through a similar exercise to set them up for success in the next year. Your team looks to you for guidance and clarity and if you’re not clear on what you want to accomplish for yourself, you can’t truly help shepherd your team towards their individual and collective goals successfully. My team annual planning process has tools for conducting reflection exercises for your team and monitoring their progress over the next year (important for performance reviews!).
Let’s talk about my tips for conducting your personal annual review and leading your team’s through a thoughtful and efficient annual review process.
Personal Annual Review
Part 1: Reflections > Wins, Losses, and Growth Opportunities
This part of the process is exciting - this is your time to take a step back and acknowledge what you’ve accomplished, where you’ve stumbled, and what you’ve learned.
Reflection isn’t just a box to check; it’s a powerful tool that informs your growth.
Review Your Goals: Start with a reality check. Which goals did you hit, miss, or exceed? Examine what helped you reach your successes and what blocked your progress on the others.
Celebrate Your Wins: If you’re here, reading this, you’ve undoubtedly moved the needle. Recognize your wins, big and small. Take a moment to send a thank-you note to those who’ve supported you—whether they’re teammates, mentors, or friends.
Analyze Setbacks and Lessons Learned: No one moves forward without a few stumbles. Reflect on your “misses” to understand the patterns or circumstances that may have held you back. Did a lack of time, support, or focus play a role? Awareness of these factors will guide your future goals.
Identify Growth Areas: Where can you stretch further? Maybe it’s in skill-building, communication, or setting firmer boundaries. Use your reflections to pinpoint gaps and frame them as opportunities.
Part 2: Future-Proofing > Goal Setting and Action Planning
With your reflections in hand, you’re now ready to map out your goals for next year. This isn’t about arbitrary ambitions—it’s about choosing goals that reflect your values and vision.
Define Your Vision: Take a moment to visualize success at the end of next year. What would a fulfilling year look like for you? This clarity will help shape meaningful goals that align with your ambitions.
Set Quarterly Milestones: Rather than yearly goals that might feel overwhelming, break your vision into quarterly milestones. This keeps you motivated and lets you celebrate wins along the way. If you need help setting clear goals, you can use the SMART goal framework to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals.
Create an action plan: With your quarterly milestones in mind, define specific actions. For example, you may have set a goal to transition from Senior Manager to Director by the end of the year. If your Q1 goal is to delegate more of your work to your team to make room for more strategic activities, two tasks on your action plan for January might be:
Getting a Director job description from your boss or HR so you understand all of the skills that you need to develop to become a Director (this gets you one step closer to that year end vision)
Assess which members of your team are capable of taking on additional tasks and identifying 1-2 items on your plan that could be delegated.
Remember, these steps should be realistic and actionable, not aspirational alone.
Download my Year-End Reflection Guide for a guided reflection on the past year.
Team Annual Review
Part 1: Reflections > Team Wins, Losses, and Team Commitments
If you lead a team, your role is twofold. First, guide your team through their own reflections to help them see how their contributions affect the big picture. Second, set team goals that align with both your vision and your organization’s priorities. I loved leading these meetings for my teams.
Start with an honest assessment of how the year went for your team. This reflection exercise can double as a powerful team-building moment that sets the stage for next year’s success.
Perform a Team Assessment: Take the lead by recognizing your team’s achievements and growth areas. Provide context around what went well, where you faced challenges, and what factors outside your team’s control impacted your goals. Frame this as a team win and learning opportunity rather than an individual critique.
Encourage Individual Reflection: Allow each team member to reflect on their own contributions and challenges. Carving out even 10-15 minutes for this step fosters ownership and accountability.
Run a Team Retrospective: Engage the team in a “start, stop, continue” exercise to identify commitments for the new year. Ideally these “commitments” will be inspired by the rationale for why things went well/didn’t go well earlier on. Focus the team’s contributions here on what they can control. If they’re fixated on problems & solutions that are outside of their locus of control, it’s your job as the facilitator of this exercise to redirect and inspire. This can be a powerful tool for setting mutual expectations and creating a shared sense of purpose.
If you’re in need of support - here’s my simple template for running this exercise.
Part 2: Future-Proofing Your Team > Goal Setting & Action Planning
As you set goals for your team, make sure they align with your organization’s broader objectives. This not only gives your team a shared purpose but also builds engagement and accountability.
Align with Organizational Objectives: Your goals should ladder up to your organization’s priorities. If your company’s focus is growth, for example, find ways for your team to contribute to that through specific goals like improving operational efficiency or expanding capacity. If you need inspiration, I wrote about how to win at strategic planning. If your company’s goals aren’t yet defined, start with this year’s goals and aim to improve your team’s performance.
Set Ambitious Yet Attainable Goals: Aim high and lead by example. By setting challenging goals, you encourage your team to stretch their abilities and instill a culture of growth and resilience. Don’t be the leader that sets low goals that your team achieves in 6 months, that strategy is obvious to all your peers - aim high.
Encourage Collaboration and Accountability: Promote a collaborative environment where everyone’s contributions matter. Assign responsibilities clearly, and create systems to hold each team member accountable for their part. Encourage your team members to collaborate and work together.
Part 3: The Path to Winning > Monitoring Progress and Making Adjustments
Remember that doc you & your team created in the previous exercise? You now have an outline for all your future team meetings. You don’t want to do all of this hard work and then never revisit it - the only way to see progress against your goals is by making goal-tracking part of your team’s rhythm, so progress is consistent and celebrated.
Monthly Check-ins: Use regular team meetings to touch on progress toward goals. Brief updates keep goals top-of-mind and allow you to course-correct if needed. During your regular team meeting (my preferred cadence is monthly), run through slides or a doc that references the goals & objectives you outlined for your team.
Quarterly Reviews: Take a deeper dive each quarter to assess your team’s progress and make adjustments. This flexibility helps you stay responsive to any unexpected challenges or new opportunities.
By taking these steps, you’re setting yourself and your team up for a successful year. Thoughtful reflection and planning not only keep you focused, but they also empower you to take control of your professional journey. Goals shouldn’t feel like constraints—they should be the north star guiding you and your team toward growth and fulfillment.
Happy reflecting, and here’s to a year filled with purpose and progress.
About me
I’m Ashley, a former executive turned Performance Expert with a decade of experience in tech. I help leaders and corporate teams build leadership skills that create resilient, high-performing teams.