Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five sixty four. It's Christmas night. The house
Speaker 2: is quieter, the leftovers are stacked in the fridge. The
Speaker 2: decorations are still up, but the energy has shifted. The
Speaker 2: calendar quietly flips into that strange space where Christmas is
Speaker 2: over and the new year is staring at you from
Speaker 2: a week away. This is one of the most overlooked
Speaker 2: leadership windows of the entire year, not because nothing is happening,
Speaker 2: but because everything slows down enough for reality to tap
Speaker 2: you on the shoulder. This week exposes what you meant
Speaker 2: to finish and didn't. Most leaders treat the final week
Speaker 2: of the year like emotional overtime. They're tired, they're reflective,
Speaker 2: They're already thinking about January goals, new plans, fresh starts.
Speaker 2: The danger is skipping the unfinished business that quietly follows
Speaker 2: you into the new year, and it always follows you. Tonight,
Speaker 2: I want you to think less about resolutions and more
Speaker 2: about loose ends because unresolved leadership never resets itself. And
Speaker 2: here's the uncomfortable truth. What you fail to close in
Speaker 2: December becomes friction in January. Conversations you delayed don't disappear.
Speaker 2: Decisions you avoided don't age well. Issues you tolerated don't
Speaker 2: magically improve because the year changed. They compound In emergency services, aviation,
Speaker 2: and business. Unfinished tasks create hidden risk. In the cockpit,
Speaker 2: we don't say we'll deal with that checklist item next flight.
Speaker 2: In ems, we don't ignore a restock because a new
Speaker 2: shift is coming. Leadership works the same way. This week
Speaker 2: is your final checklist, not the flashy one, the quiet one.
Speaker 2: Start with people who did you promise feedback to and
Speaker 2: never delivered, Who carried extra weight this year and never
Speaker 2: heard thank you directly from you? Who is ending the
Speaker 2: year confused because you avoided a hard conversation. Leaders underestimate
Speaker 2: how heavy silence feels to the people around them. A
Speaker 2: delayed conversation feels like a message, even when you didn't
Speaker 2: intend one. Closing the loop with people before the year
Speaker 2: ends clears emotional debt. Next, look at decisions. What decision
Speaker 2: did you delay because they were uncomfortable, political or messy.
Speaker 2: What did you push into the future because you were
Speaker 2: hoping the problem would solve itself. Leadership debt shows up
Speaker 2: when January arrives and you're already behind. The new year
Speaker 2: doesn't need new ideas if old decisions are still unresolved.
Speaker 2: Clean decisions give you momentum. Lingering ones drain it now.
Speaker 2: Look at your culture. What behaviors did you tolerate that
Speaker 2: you told yourself you would address later. What standards quietly
Speaker 2: slipped because you were tired, busy or avoiding conflict. Culture
Speaker 2: doesn't reset on January first. It carries forward whatever you
Speaker 2: allowed in December. If something bothered you all year and
Speaker 2: you never addressed it, this is your moment. Silence sends approval,
Speaker 2: whether you like it or not. This week also matters
Speaker 2: for your personality too, as a leader and you personally,
Speaker 2: What did you say you would do to take care
Speaker 2: of yourself and never followed through with What boundary did
Speaker 2: you promise yourself and then you broke repeatedly? Leadership fatigue
Speaker 2: doesn't show up overnight. It accumulates from broken promises to yourself.
Speaker 2: Ending the year honestly with yourself matters as much as
Speaker 2: ending it clean with your team. Here's a simple way
Speaker 2: to think about this week. Ask yourself one question each night,
Speaker 2: what would I regret? Not closing before the year ends,
Speaker 2: Not fixing everything, not reinventing the organization, closing what you
Speaker 2: already know needs attention. This is red key leadership time.
Speaker 2: These are high consequence moments disguised as quiet days. No spotlight,
Speaker 2: no applause, no big announcement. These are the moments where
Speaker 2: discipline matters more than motivation. Leaders who finish strong don't
Speaker 2: sprint into January exhausted and cluttered. They walk in lighter
Speaker 2: because they did the unglamorous work when no one was watching.
Speaker 2: Before you plan the next year, earn it clear, the conversations,
Speaker 2: make the decisions, acknowledge the people, fix the small things
Speaker 2: that have been nagging you, tell the truth to yourself.
Speaker 2: That is how professionals end a year. So, unfortunately, Christmas
Speaker 2: is winding down, but leadership never truly clocks out. Use
Speaker 2: this quiet week wisely, the version of you that shows
Speaker 2: up in January depends on what you choose to close
Speaker 2: right now. So finish strong, finish honest, and give the
Speaker 2: new year a clean runway. This has been the Seven
Speaker 2: Minute Leadership Podcast, and as always, I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com