If you know that ending the year on a high note is important for your team, but you don't know how to make it happen, then this episode is for you.

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Bright Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Elena Aguilar. And in each podcast episode, you will learn how you can lead

conversations that build connection and spark change. So today, we are talking about a leadership

move that often gets overlooked, but that makes all the difference, which is ending well.

Because how you close a year leaves a mark. And in many ways, it does set the tone for what

comes next. So let's get into this. Think about how much time we typically put into beginnings. We plan

retreats. We launch meetings. We make vision boards. We come up with icebreakers. We know that how

we begin matters. But here's the thing.

Endings matter just as much.

And yet, often, by the time May and June roll around,

many teams are just scrambling and coasting to the finish.

And that's understandable, but it is also a missed opportunity.

Because what happens in those final meetings and even in the final minutes of those final meetings, that sticks.

That is sometimes what people carry with them into summer.

And that's what echoes when they come back in the fall.

So today I want to offer you a simple but powerful frame.

Ending well is a leadership skill.

So a few years back, I worked with a leader, I'm going to call him Jordan, who led a team

of interventionists at a large middle school. And it had been a really hard year. There was

mid-year staff turnover, a lack of clear direction, a lot of emotional exhaustion.

And by May, Jordan was tempted to just call it, to cancel the final meeting, to send a quick

thank you email, and to be done with it. But after some coaching, Jordan decided to gather

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