The 12 Days of Leadership: A Year-End Reflection Guide for Executives  

Welcome, executive!  

The end of the year is the perfect time to look back and reflect. With CEOs spending an average of 72% of their time in meetings, often in fragmented hour-long spurts—and other executives likely facing similar scheduling challenges—finding time for dedicated reflection can be as rare as a quiet moment in an open-plan office. The festive season often provides the only substantial downtime for strategic thinking—making it the ideal time for reflection. 

With this guide in hand, inspired by the traditional 12 Days of Christmas, we offer you a structured approach to year-end reflection for leaders. Each day presents a focused exercise to help you evaluate your performance, celebrate your achievements, and identify areas for growth. 

Now, go forth and reflect—not just to meet year-end obligations, but to become the kind of leader your team genuinely misses during the holiday break (and the shareholders appreciate all year round). 

Day 1: Vision and Strategy

The end of one year and the start of another is the perfect moment to sharpen your strategic edge. While research from PWC examining 6,000 leaders found that only about 8% could be classified as “strategic leaders,” don’t let that number intimidate you. Strategic thinking is like any other skill—it gets better with practice and purposeful reflection.  

That’s why, on this first day, you should take a close look at your organization’s vision and the strategies you’ve implemented to achieve it. (And no, “surviving the holiday party without any PR incidents” doesn’t count as a strategy!) 

Exercise:

Write down your company’s vision statement and list three strategies you’ve employed this year to move towards that vision. Evaluate their effectiveness and consider potential adjustments for the coming year. 

Day 2: Team Development

Personal growth is great, but your success as a leader isn’t just about you. The World Economic Forum predicts that nearly half of employees’ core skills will need to evolve in the coming years. That makes team development not just important, but necessary for survival. On day two, reflect on how you’ve helped your team grow this past year.  

Exercise:

Reflect on your team development efforts this year: What worked? What didn’t? Then outline three specific ways you’ll help your team grow and succeed in the year ahead. Think beyond traditional and nontraditional training—consider mentorship programs, stretch assignments, or cross-functional projects that could spark new skills and perspectives. 

Day 3: Innovation and Adaptability

Research reveals that less than half of executives believe their organizations effectively connect business strategy with innovation efforts. The thing is, adaptive leadership and innovation are inseparable—you can’t have one without the other. Today, reflect on how you’ve created a culture of innovation and adapted to changes in your industry.  

Exercise:

Take a close look at how innovation and technology are reshaping your industry. What disruptions are on the horizon? What opportunities are emerging? Then map out your innovation strategy: How will you position your organization to stay ahead? What specific steps will you take to build a culture where new ideas can thrive? 

Day 4: Communication Skills

When it comes to communication, silence isn’t golden. In fact, leaders are ten times more likely to be criticized for saying too little than saying too much. Getting communication right is important for every executive. That’s why on day four, it’s time to reflect on your communication style.  

Exercise:

Recall three important messages you communicated this year. Analyze their clarity, impact, and reception. Identify areas where you can improve your communication skills. 

Day 5: Decision-Making

Decision-making dominates an executive’s day. Studies show that while 14% of C-suite executives spend over 70% of their time making decisions, the majority feel most of that time is used ineffectively. On day five, it’s time to reflect on the decisions you’ve made this year—and whether all those hours in the conference room were worth it. 

Exercise:

List three big decisions you made this year. Analyze the process you used to make these decisions and their results. Consider how you can improve your decision-making approach. 

Day 6: Emotional Intelligence

Want to outperform your peers by 40%? That’s what high-empathy leaders achieve in coaching, decision-making, and employee engagement. Plus, emotional intelligence (EQ) is four times more powerful than IQ in predicting success. On day six, take time to reflect on how you’ve shown emotional intelligence throughout the past year. 

Exercise:

Identify three situations where you effectively managed your emotions or showed empathy towards others. Reflect on how these instances impacted your team and organization. 

Day 7: Goal Setting and Achievement

The end of the year is traditionally a time for ambitious resolutions and questionable dance moves. But before you promise to read 500 business books or master interpretive dance in the boardroom, let’s talk about smart goal setting. Research shows that people who set specific, difficult goals outperform those with vague or easy targets 90% of the time. On day seven, reflect on your goals from the past year and set challenging ones for the year ahead. 

Exercise:

What are your top priorities for 2025? More importantly, how will you actually achieve them? Looking back at this year’s wins and misses can help shape your approach—but the real question is what specific actions you’ll take to turn next year’s ambitions into reality. 

Day 8: Personal Growth

Research shows that organizations investing in leadership development are 2.4 times more likely to hit their performance targets. On day eight, reflect on your personal growth over the past year and plan your own personal leadership development for the year ahead. After all, the best gift you can give your organization is a better version of yourself! 

Exercise:

Identify three new skills or knowledge areas you’ve developed this year. Reflect on how they’ve improved your leadership. Then, set personal development goals for the coming year. 

Day 9: Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion often fall to the bottom of an executive’s priority list—but they shouldn’t. Beyond being the right thing to do, the data is clear: organizations that embrace diversity in all its forms—from gender and ethnicity to age, background, and thought—see results.  

In fact, companies with racially diverse leadership are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors, while those with strong gender diversity in their executive teams show 25% higher profitability compared to less inclusive counterparts. And these numbers only scratch the surface of what truly inclusive organizations can achieve.  

On day nine, reflect on two important questions: How are you opening doors for others? And once they’re through those doors, what are you doing to make sure they want to stay? 

Exercise:

List three initiatives you’ve put in place to improve diversity and inclusion in your organization. Evaluate their impact and brainstorm new ways to further these efforts. 

Day 10: Crisis Management

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that crisis management isn’t just for emergency manuals gathering dust on shelves. Research shows that 68% of people expect CEOs to take the lead on business changes rather than waiting for government intervention—and this expectation becomes even more heightened during crises. The same principle applies to all executives: your teams look to you for decisive action, not just reaction. On day ten, reflect on your crisis leadership skills—because in business, it’s not if the next crisis will hit, but when.  

Exercise:

Identify three challenges you faced in the past year. Analyze your response, the outcomes, and lessons learned. Develop a plan to improve your crisis management skills. 

Day 11: Mentorship and Succession Planning

If the end of the year reminds us of anything, it’s the inevitability of time passing. Eventually, someone will need to replace all current leaders—preferably before they start telling the same stories at every company meeting. But here’s the challenge: while 86% of leaders believe succession planning is important, only 14% think their organization does it well. Don’t see it as training your replacement; see it as building your legacy. On day eleven, reflect on how you’re developing tomorrow’s leaders. 

Exercise:

List three ways you’ve mentored or groomed potential successors this year. Evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts and plan how to grow in your mentorship rol

Day 12: Work-Life Balance

Leadership burnout isn’t just a personal problem—it’s contagious. When executives are exhausted, it ripples through the entire organization. Research shows that nearly 60% of leaders report feeling burned out, yet too many of us wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. On this final day, reflect on how you’ve balanced your own well-being with work demands, and how you’ve encouraged your team to do the same. After all, real success means taking breaks throughout the year, not just during the holidays. 

Exercise: 

Map out your work-life balance strategy for the year ahead. What specific boundaries will you set? What habits will you build to protect your energy and time? Remember, a burned-out leader can’t lead effectively—so get concrete about the changes you’ll make to sustain both your performance and your wellbeing in the coming year. 

Growing Beyond the Corner Office

At Stanton Chase, we believe the best leaders are the ones who never stop learning. As you complete these 12 days of reflection, capture your insights. Keep them somewhere you’ll actually look at them because these reflections aren’t just for December; they’re your roadmap for the year ahead. 

About the Authors

Bernardita Mena is Stanton Chase’s Global Vice Chair of People Excellence and Managing Director for Stanton Chase Santiago. With a background in psychology and business, including a degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an MBA from EADA, she believes in using leadership to drive organizational success. Before joining the executive search industry, Bernardita was a corporate leader heading initiatives like engagement, talent development, and change management for a multinational company. Now elected to Stanton Chase’s Board of Directors, she is passionate about identifying top talent that aligns with company culture and strategy.    

Norbert Nagy is Stanton Chase’s Vice President for the EMEA Region and Managing Partner of Stanton Chase Budapest. With over 15 years in executive search and a background in IT and management consulting, he specializes in the technology, manufacturing, and life sciences sectors across the Hungarian and CEE markets. A graduate of Oxford Brooks University, Norbert has led senior management searches in dozens of countries, combining his multilingual abilities with deep industry expertise. Now certified in various assessment tools and cultural advisory, he brings both strategic insight and cultural understanding to identifying executive talent.