How to curate your year-end highlight real.
Spending a few minutes at year-end curating a highlight reel of our own personal celebrations is an excellent way to boost our self-esteem, our personal brands, and our appeal as job candidates. Here’s an approach to making this happen.
Hey, it’s Rachel Cooke, your Modern Mentor. I’m the founder of Lead Above Noise—a firm specializing in helping leaders and organizations crack their activation codes – finding the simple tweaks to enhance both performance and engagement.
So, I’m recording this at the end of 2023. And my goal today is to share one of my favorite year-end practices Creating a personal highlight reel.
But frankly I think this practice suits at the end of a quarter or even a month. So don’t sweat if you’re listening to this smack in the middle of a year. It’s an exercise that never goes out of fashion.
So let’s chat about this highlight reel. It’s kind of like the montage scene toward the end of literally every movie made in the 1980’s. It’s the collection of snapshots that, strung together, tell a story of moments totally worth remembering and celebrating.
In a movie, the highlight reel usually serves to trigger the viewer’s emotion. To get you cheering for the good guy or the romance.
In the workplace? It may not be so literal. But it’s the mental montage you compile - those moments that you deserve to see strung together, to help you remember all the greatness you bring to the table.
How do you collect these? Well… scan through delightful emails (or texts or slacks) you’ve received. Reflect on conversations you’ve had in which someone was singing your praises. Ask for feedback. Look back at your own development plan and track actions you’ve taken on that course.
Done thoughtfully, this can have some pretty big impacts.
Like, on…
Whatever your reason, whatever your method, taking some time to reflect on the highlights of a year or month as it closes is a wise investment of your time.
So…what do you focus on? Where do you pull these moments from?
Let’s talk about my favorite areas of focus for a winning reel.
Maybe it’s obvious but start by focusing on the big outcomes – the projects or decisions or campaigns or changes – that wouldn’t have taken the shape they took without your contribution.
Did you do the research that fueled a campaign that led to sales?
Did you talk to a collection of clients or patients or students whose feedback you used to inform a winning approach?
Did you recommend a simple change to a process or program that enabled a faster or more effective outcome?
Did you flag a risk you saw coming and save the company money?
I’m not asking you to focus only on things you started and finished and carried the whole way by yourself. I’m asking you to think about the initiatives you touched, whose direction you informed, and whose wins are partly yours to celebrate.
So the next category I love to capture has nothing, necessarily, to do with outputs that anyone else can see.
Skills and capabilities you’ve developed this year, challenges you’ve faced head on – these all benefit your company.
Maybe you got certified in a new program or a coaching methodology – and you can do things next year that otherwise would have had to be outsourced.
Maybe you took some LinkedIn Learning courses on prioritization or project management or communication – and you plan to unleash that skill on your team in the coming year.
Maybe you stepped outside your comfort zone to speak at a conference or volunteer to lead a project that felt like a stretch. And now you’re ready to do even bigger things next year.
You may be the only one who knows of these achievements. So don’t look for celebratory emails from anyone else. Spend a few minutes capturing the knowledge and skill you’ve curated this year – it’ll be an asset your company won’t even see coming!
So not all success looks like success at first. Some of our greatest wins grow out of the willingness to fail. To lose.
What experiments did you challenge yourself to take on this year? What sure thing did you pass on to take a chance on something bigger or better?
One of my clients leads a sales team. Every year they sponsor a handful of industry events which generates a predictable – if not overwhelmingly exciting – set of leads.
This year, she took a risk. Tried something different. Instead of having her team all stand together on a trade floor at their booth, she asked each of them to attend – and speak at – a smaller conference of their choice. On any topic. Any industry.
At the end of each conference, they had zero leads. And she took some serious heat for it. But by year-end? Their leads had nearly doubled. People having heard the talks delivered by her team members had been impressed. And over time began reaching out.
This strategy had no track record. It was a big ol’ risk. But one she was willing to take. And lucky for her company she did!
Because finally. Humanity matters. And not all of the highlights in our reel are about us alone.
Whether you’re looking to expand into a leadership role, you want to become a coach or a mentor, or you just wanna be seen as an all-around stand-out collaborator – spend a few minutes reflecting on the people you’ve served this year.
How did you help foster your team’s sense of trust and connection?
Where did you step in to help a colleague who was clearly overwhelmed?
What feedback did you bravely offer that a peer took and ran with to great success?
Did you offer someone a chance in the spotlight – to present to a senior leader just to give them that extra bump of exposure?
Your generosity of spirit belongs, without a doubt, in a prominent spot in your highlight reel.
So as you’ve collected and curated the delightful bits of your year. Be honest. Are you feeling pretty proud to be you? I hope so. You deserve to. We all deserve to celebrate ourselves.
Join me next week for another great episode. Until then, visit my website at leadabovenoise.com if your organization is looking to crack its activation code- dialing up performance and engagement.. You can follow Modern Mentor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Find and follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks so much for listening and have a successful week.
Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. It's audio-engineered by Dan Feirabend. Our Director of Podcasts is Brannan Goetschius. Our Podcast and Advertising Operations Specialist is Morgan Christianson. Our Digital Operations Specialist is Holly Hutchings. Our Marketing and Publicity Assistant is Davina Tomlin, and Kamryn Lacy is our marketing contractor.