Escaping the "Graveyard of Strategy": How Leaders Win December

The December Paradox

The allure of the "Clean Slate" of January. We can all fall for this.

As leaders, we can feel a compulsive need to wrap up every loose end, answer every lingering email, and attend every "project wrap-up" before the holidays. We convince ourselves that if we just work hard enough to clear the decks, we will walk into January with a fresh mind.

This is a lie.

In reality, December becomes the "Graveyard of Strategy." We get so busy finishing the tactical work of the past that we stop thinking about the strategic work of the future. We burn our most valuable mental energy on administrative closure, leaving nothing in the tank for visionary planning.

If you want to win 2026, you have to stop treating December like a finish line. You have to start treating it like a head start.

Shift 1: Insight Extraction vs. Status Reporting

The average December meeting is a "Status Update"—a checklist of what got finished. While necessary for operations, this is looking in the rearview mirror. It tells you what happened, but not why it matters for next year.

The Strategic Leader shifts the conversation from reporting to learning.

I don't cancel end-of-year meetings; I change the agenda. We don't waste time listing tasks that are already marked "done" in our project management tool. Instead, we ask three specific questions:

1. The Broken Assumption: What did we believe in January 2025 that turned out to be wrong?

2. The Silent Killer: What process or tool slowed us down the most this year?

3. The Hidden Win: What small experiment worked better than expected?

This is much more than just what worked what didn’t – That is always helpful too, but this is a deeper dive. It turns a tactical "wrap-up" into a strategic goldmine. You aren't just closing tabs; you are harvesting intelligence that directly informs the 2026 roadmap.

Shift 2: Synthesis Over Accumulation

Many Marketing Leaders spend any spare time in Q4 in "Research Mode." We read the Analyst reports and predictions, and the "Top Trends of 2026" articles and competitive analysis. We feel like we are working because we are consuming information.

But consumption is passive. Strategy is active.

The strategic leader stops "gathering" data in mid-December. Leverage AI where you can in order to gather the key themes, to help consolidate and then you switch to "synthesizing" it. You don't need another report to tell you that AI is important or that budgets are tight and you need to deliver value. You need to decide what your organization is going to do about it.

I challenge myself and my teams to stop reading and start actioning on what we can do. Draft the "January 1st Memo" to your team now. What is the narrative? What is the "One Big Bet"? Forcing yourself to articulate the strategy reveals the gaps in your thinking.

Shift 3: The "Sacred 4 Hours"

Strategy cannot happen in 30-minute increments between Zoom calls. Deep strategic thought requires "Context Preservation"—the ability to hold a complex problem in your mind for an extended period without interruption.

In December, I implement the "Sacred Hours" rule.

I carve out windows on my calendar every week. They are not for clearing my inbox.

They are not for "catching up."

They are for:

1. Scenario Planning: "What are the big priorities and big bets that we want to focus our time and resources on? What market challenges might we be able to plan around, what might actually open up doors of opportunity?”

2. Talent Assessment: "When everyone has limited resources, how do we help our team achieve their 2026 mission? Some may need to ensure they have the right people in place.”

3. Narrative Design: "How do we tell our story differently next year?"

This time is the most expensive inventory I have. I protect it fiercely.

Conclusion: Enter January executing strategy, not recovering

The leaders who try to "do it all" in December usually start January in a state of recovery. They spend the first two weeks of the new year just trying to remember what the strategy was.

The leaders who are willing to spend the time to focus on the horizon—they hit the ground sprinting.

Don't let the busy work bury your strategy.