Leadership tips for managing through the end of year slump

Let’s face it. 

The holiday season is upon us and many people are rolling the doors down on their outcomes for the year.

As a leader, this can be tricky.

There are six weeks left in 2023. And two of those weeks are lost to holidays. But that doesn’t mean that the work slows or your boss suddenly stops caring about hitting Q4 goals.

End of year slumps compound on burnout that’s accumulated throughout the year (Cassandra Babilya already pointed this out: most managers are not okay).

Think about the last few months alone.

👉Continued pandemic fallout
👉Public school closures placing extra burdens on parents (I see you Portland ❤️ )
👉Layoffs everywhere
👉Return to work mandates
👉 Devastating global events (October 7th massacre in Israel, followed by an ongoing genocide in Gaza)

So yeah, it’s tempting to put it in neutral and circle back in 2024.

But when the Exec team is rallying an end–of-year effort, the burden is on leadership teams to figure it out. 

Thou shall not self-care to healing

I want to be super clear: there is no amount of self-care in the world that can retroactively heal burnout. Care needs to be part of an ongoing routine in order to be effective. Bonus: we are more productive when we incorporate care into our daily and weekly routines.

Balance what’s possible, and let the rest go

The most successful end-of-year leaders balance two things well:

1. They know what the business needs

If you’re getting a new end-of-year goal this close to January, that is a sign of poor planning and external politics at play. Leaders who have a clear understanding of the business and what’s needed to achieve those outcomes are in a different place than leaders who either didn’t have a clear plan, or weren’t given clear objectives early enough.

2. They understand what’s possible

Leaders should have a good sense of overall team morale and bandwidth. If leaders opt out of regular check-ins and deprioritized relationship-building earlier in the year, chances are they don’t understand what’s possible to achieve in the next few weeks.

Being an effective leader doesn’t mean achieving results at all costs. It means figuring out how to unlock the potential in your collective team. 

And at this time of year, that may mean allowing them to rest.

Here’s how you can still move forward while allowing the team to rest:

Set a goal and stick with it. Changes in direction contributes to burnout. Pick a goal your team can rely on, even if it’s an internal goal.

Tackle big system clean-ups. This is a great time of year to clean up your CRM (customer relationship manager), revisit your SOPs (standard operating procedures), or set up a new process for the new year. 

Reflect on the year. Have your team reflect on the year and set personal and professional goals for 2024. No, this isn’t a performance management task. But something everybody should do as they map out their career. Try providing two simple prompts:

👉What projects gave you energy?

👉 What projects drained you?

Set your H1 plan. Most organizations want to plan for 2024 now, but end up in the first week of January before it actually happens. Set yourself up with a competitive advantage by doing this planning now, and using the first week to gut check the plan, instead of having to create it net-new. Your March selves will thank you.

Remember: rest is necessary to being productive.

Anything you’d add?