Reflect on 2024 to Strengthen and Lead Your Team More Effectively

Welcome📋🙂

As 2024 ends, and the excitement for what 2025 could bring, this is a wonderful time to be a leader in Early Childhood Education! Looking back on the past year provides the opportunity to gain insight into personal growth and evaluate success and challenges to plan for the next year.

This week, let’s talk about reflection and how it is a very important tool as you look forward as a leader.

Reflecting on the years ups and downs is an important part of growth, especially in a field as impactful as Early Childhood Education (ECE). It's clear that you and I have navigated a lot this year as leaders in our early childhood programs. As we prepare for 2025, reflection will be key to fostering a positive environment for both our team and the children and families we serve.

I would like to share with you, how and what I reflect on to learn from the past year to set myself up for success:

The Great

• Celebrate Successes: Reflect on the achievements, whether they’re personal, team-related, or organizational. This could be breakthroughs in your professional development, growth in your team, improvements in the curriculum, or successful events that positively impacted the children. Take time to recognize these moments and use them to fuel your vision for the future.

• Strengths to Build On: What worked well this year? Are there new strategies that enhanced learning outcomes or classroom management? Celebrate these successes and think about how you can continue to refine and apply them moving forward.

The Good

• Sustaining Momentum: Even the "good" moments are important. They are signs of progress, even if they aren’t perfect. These might include new partnerships with parents, strong communication within the team, or successful implementation of new policies or practices. Recognizing these moments helps maintain momentum for the next year.

• Professional Development: Did you attend any trainings, workshops, or conferences that provided new insights or skills? Reflect on how these can be integrated into your work going forward. Professional growth is always a long-term investment.

The Bad

• Challenges and Obstacles: What were the biggest challenges you faced this year? Whether it's issues with behavior management, staff turnover, lack of resources, or communication barriers, reflecting on these difficulties can help you develop better coping strategies for the future.

• Lessons Learned: How did you manage these challenges? What did they teach you about yourself, your leadership style, or the needs of your team and students? Turning challenges into lessons is a powerful tool for growth.

The Ugly

• Mistakes and Failures: It's never easy to face failures but acknowledging them is essential. Perhaps there were moments when things didn’t go as planned, whether with a curriculum rollout, a classroom incident, or even a team conflict. Use these moments to evaluate what went wrong and what could have been done differently.

• Growth from Adversity: Failure doesn't define you—it teaches you. Reflect on how those tough moments can guide you toward being a stronger leader in 2025. The ugly can lead to personal breakthroughs and system improvements when viewed through the lens of learning.

After I have taken time to reflect on the year, one of my favorite activities to do and share with my employees is to have a year-end review presentation that is shared at a large group staff meeting.

First, I take my reflection and add it to a large sheet of paper Then, I ask each teacher to create one or two sticky notes to summarizing their key accomplishments, challenges, andor learning experiences from the past year, and place it in the box. Click here to see what I mean!

This activity brings laughter, tears, oohs, and ahs, but also a sense of nostalgia.

Reflecting on 2024 offers a valuable chance to develop as a leader for your team. Embracing this reflection can help you become more resilient, effective, and inspiring in your role as the leader of your early childhood program.

Till Next time,

Jen Sprafka🖍️

P.S. Check out this small group reflection activity I have done with my teachers to make our program stronger💪🏼