How to End a Year So It Actually Builds Momentum
“We organize our experience and our memory of human happenings mainly in the form of narrative.”
Yesterday, our team held our final meeting of 2025.
We did the practical things first - contracts going out, loose ends that needed attention, business-as-usual items. It was necessary and efficient.
But that wasn't the point of the meeting.
The point was how we ended the year together.
We spent most of the time reviewing highlights such as moments we'd been quietly capturing all year in our weekly agenda. (This only works because someone is disciplined enough to track them. Thank you, Charlotte.)
We didn't review accomplishments to prove productivity. We revisited moments to remember meaning.
Each person shared one moment that stood out.
A talk we presented together. The feeling of building something that's both exciting and genuinely collaborative. For me, it was a mix of appreciation and relief, relief that new team members have joined, that some early-founder weight has shifted, that Groops no longer rests on just a couple sets of shoulders.
We laughed. We remembered. We spoke honestly.
Then we shared a hope - for ourselves, for the company, and for the world.
Mine started specific (sales targets - honest but boring). But it quickly expanded into something bigger, a picture of where we might be in 365 days. New partners. New team members. New adventures. A fuller version of what we're building together. In coaching, we often talk about how you cannot build something you cannot see. We lightly visioned together.
We also named some growing pains. Spoke openly about them. Because pretending everything is smooth doesn't make a team stronger, naming what's hard does. We did what we always teach our clients and students - notice and name the feeling, and talk about it directly.
We ended by naming a feeling.
Mine was gratitude, not the performative, end-of-year leadership version, but the real kind. I felt it in my chest as I shared. Gratitude for people choosing to put their creativity, energy, and care into building Groops. For treating this work not just as a job, but as a vehicle for something larger, helping teams become more connected, more cohesive, more honest - and ultimately, higher performing.
The room felt warm and grounded. And also pulsing with energy about what's next.
That combination matters.
But here's what surprised me most, I left feeling connected, proud, and hopeful, not just for our team as a performing unit, but for each person in that room as a human trying to grow toward something that matters to them.
Hearing what stood out to each person gave me something unexpected, insight into how to create more space for what they actually love. Not just what makes them good contributors (though that matters), but what helps them grow as whole people.
There's something a bit mama bear about that realization. My job isn't just to hit revenue targets. It's to build a company where people get closer to who they want to become and where that growth directly fuels what we're building together.
Why Most Teams Miss This Moment
Most teams end the year exhausted. They rush to close loops, finish decks, ship deliverables and then abruptly stop. No integration. No meaning-making. No emotional punctuation mark. Without reflection, the year collapses into a blur, and momentum decays instead of carrying forward.
The Psychology of Ending Well
Research on team cohesion and group memory is clear: shared reflection strengthens trust, identity, and motivation, especially during transitions.
High-performing teams don't just plan forward. They integrate backward. They name what mattered, not just what shipped. They surface emotion, not just outcomes. They hold both gratitude and ambition at the same time.
That's not "soft." That's how you consolidate effort into momentum.
Humans don't experience time linearly, we experience it narratively. The teams that feel energized in January aren't the ones who rested the most, they're the ones who ended with meaning.
The Groops Take
At Groops, we see this pattern constantly.
Teams don't need more planning sessions. They need better closures.
The most effective teams we work with intentionally create space to reflect on shared moments, speak honestly about what shifted, name hopes without over-polishing them, and end on a felt sense, not a task list.
When teams do this, something subtle but powerful happens: trust deepens, effort feels seen, and the future feels possible rather than exhausting.
Ending well is a leadership skill. And like all leadership skills, it's learnable.
Something to Try: A 30-Minute Year-End Close
Before your team disperses for the year, try this simple structure:
Highlights: Each person shares one moment from the year that felt meaningful.
Hope: One hope for yourself, the team, or the broader world - specific or aspirational.
Feeling: One word or phrase that captures how you're leaving the year.
No fixing. No debating. No optimizing. Just noticing.
If your team ends feeling both grounded and energized, you did it right.
Ready to Build Momentum Into 2026?
At Groops, we help teams turn reflection into performance. Whether you're leading a founding team, an executive partnership, or a cross-functional group, we create the space to name what matters, repair what's stuck, and build the clarity that makes everything else easier.