Year in Review: Reflect, Recharge, Recommit

I love a good year in review. I recently started doing it with my photos that never quite make it off the screen. The movie that plays showcases memories of all my starred people and recreates the experiences, laughter and landscapes that I felt called to capture.

If there’s no picture did it even happen? Similarly, if we don’t intentionally create moments to look back, celebrate and relive our experiences from a different vantage point, are we ever really moving forward?  Of course time passes. Calendars flip. Goals reset. But the deeper question is whether we are growing, evolving, and shifting. How are we integrating what we’ve lived through and shaping how we lead next.

Distance creates perspective. What once felt ordinary reveals meaning. What felt hard shows growth. And what felt fleeting turns out to be foundational.

Reflection doesn’t keep us stuck in the past. It sharpens our lens. It’s how we move forward with clarity, grounded in where we’ve been and intentional about where we’re going.

ELEVATE

Avoiding the dissent into the deep dark spiral.

Last week I delivered my final training session in 2025 called Lead with Presence. It was the client’s final one as well, and the room was filled with 32 individuals with mixed tenure, seniority and experience. It was an afternoon slot in mid-December, so I created the content to be especially relatable, inspirational, and light.

The training ended with a round of applause which always feeds my performer in another life soul. Then came the feedback survey results. Out of the positive and reflective comments, was one participant who hated the experience. Hate is of course a strong word, and subjectively not the correct description of the comments, but it fits appropriately inside the deep dark vortex where I immediately descended.  This descent may sound familiar in how we systematically only see the worst comments, laser in on the constructive feedback, and pull out only the most challenging moments from a year’s review.

This week I had a client who shared with me all the ways she was overextending herself and burning out while doing so, and how this has been her habitual pattern over the last month. Until I reminded her our previous session was just the opposite, where she recounted the time she intentionally spent on herself and was flowing with creativity and impact. Why do we gloss over the positive and go straight for the horrifying jugular? 

The invitation of how to elevate out of the immersive challenges and judgements is to find the call to action. What do I do with this information? For me, the constructive feedback I received in the survey can either help me adjust how I frame training sessions so that expectations are aligned or create more opportunity for input and flexibility. Or it can also be something to let go of because it wasn’t right for that person at that time regardless of the pivots.  

What are you stuck in that is in fact, a call to action?

EMPOWER

A few weeks ago at the CREW event, right before delivering the keynote I was interviewed and asked what advice I would give accomplished women leaders.  The most immediate answer, especially during one of the busiest times of year, was how to sustain momentum and growth without being drained. 

I had shared when a person accomplishes something that was at one point a high bar, we then blow right through it as if it was never really that high in the first place,  and immediately raise it again.  We move the goal posts as soon as we score.  When I watch my kids play sports, there is a celebration at every accomplishment. Make the basket, clap, score a touchdown, cheer. But it doesn’t translate at work.

Empowerment isn’t only about momentum. It’s about owning it. Own the invitation to cheer, to acknowledge progress, and to allow success to land. When we don’t do that, we train ourselves to believe that it is never enough. When we do it, we build the confidence and capacity needed to move forward with intention and confidence versus expectation and exhaustion. Empowerment begins when we allow ourselves to stand in what we’ve built and the scores we’ve made, and not rush past them.

What accomplishment from this year are you ready to fully acknowledge and let land before deciding what comes next?

RESULTS

In January Recharge Leadership is launching Accelerating Impact at the Director Level, an 8-month experiential development program at a new client. It started as a conversation almost one year ago and evolved into a co-creation of an experience designed to meet the needs and expectations of a high-performing cohort within a dynamic and fast-paced organization.  

Results aren’t just about what’s launched. They’re about recognizing what it took to get there. Relationship building, long-term views, iterations, and the willingness to stay in the work long enough for something meaningful to take shape. When leaders stay in the game, even as the challenges roll in, they build confidence and capacity for what comes next.

The real result here isn’t just a program launch. It’s proof of concept. It’s momentum with meaning. And it’s a reminder that sustainable growth comes from owning what you’ve built before deciding what to build next.

What result from this year are you ready to fully acknowledge before setting your next goal?