I had a great conversation with a coaching client this week about the need for their team to keep building pipeline for next year and not let it stall over the coming months. Until that moment I’d been thinking of it as a challenge of the consulting world, but of course it applies to any business and team with a customer, and particularly those with a longer lead time between the first conversation and the signed work.

The way I described it was a bit like daylight saving. With very little fuss we move the clocks forward and almost immediately we step into a different way of living. When you think about it, that’s a pretty big reframe. It changes when we do most things and how we feel about them, and within a week or two we’ve adjusted and are making the most of the longer evenings. Year end is a similar artificial (and handy) construct. Our tax system and reporting cycles keep us focussed on quarters and financial years. Here in Australia, summer adds another layer, with December and Christmas becoming the end game before everyone heads off on holidays.

And because it’s a construct, we can choose to reframe it. What the Exec leader and I talked about was how to interrupt that structure so teams aren’t limping to the finish line in December and then grinding through a slow start in January and February.

What you can do now

1. Make sure everyone in the team is properly rested and takes a break somewhere between now and December, rather than pushing through on fumes until Christmas.

2. Extend your focus beyond the quarter and beyond Christmas. Look at what’s coming into scope now and what you have lined up each month through to February, not just through to December, and do this first at an individual level and then as a team.

3. Bring your team together in November to build momentum for 2027. That means checking in against the strategy and your ways of working, looking at what’s coming up, what’s working well and what needs attention, and agreeing the way forward from there.

I’m doing exactly the same thing in my own business and now, with several of my existing clients too.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

It’s a conversation I’ve had with more than a few senior leaders lately.

When you’ve honed your craft over years and stepped into more senior roles, you don’t suddenly lose your subject matter expertise. It’s still there, sharp as ever. And it’s sooo tempting to jump in when you see a better way forward. The desire to solve / create / get your hands dirty is often HUGE.

The reasons behind this temptation are varied:  You see the path forward so clearly so why not save everyone the thinking time? Maybe it’s because compared with the complexity in your current role which often feels hard, the old role feels so much easier and sometimes a bit of thrill to get the deal, create the process, write the strategy… And then there’s the case where the person in the role just isn’t able to do a good job or perhaps isn’t being accountable for delivering so really, it’s just easier to jump in and do it.

…the result is the same.

You say yes to doing the work, and in doing so, you say no to the role you’re actually meant to be taking up.

The cost? Often it’s the core work of leadership:

• Building capability in others
• Creating the space to think and connect strategically
• Holding people accountable for what’s theirs
• Developing a team that has capacity within themselves to deliver

In times of inflection, those critical points where everything is shifting it’s critical to refocus your role.

It’s about asking ‘What is required of me now in this context – this time of geopolitical, technological and demographic change and upheaval? What does the business, the team, maybe even the sector require of me?

It takes courage and discipline to lean into the areas you need to focus on and not get sidetracked by the things that come easy or give you that sense of achievement when they’re not yours to deliver directly.

Take a moment today to do a quick check on yourself (there’ll be clues in your calendar). Have you been leading or doing the stuff that comes easily to you?