Happy Thursday!

‘Tis the season for reflection.

I recently found myself catching up with an HR leader I hadn’t talked with in over a year. She was quick to share all the things she hadn’t accomplished in 2025, but as I probed a bit, stories of her successes started to emerge.

I could actually see the moment where she registered everything she HAD accomplished this year.

She left our call with completely different energy - and honestly, so did I.

And you know as well as I do, my friend is not alone.

You do a lot each year.

But you rarely stop to see it.

In the whirlwind of supporting teams, managing crises, improving systems, onboarding humans, mediating conflicts, and shepherding leaders through change, your work becomes a constant stream of “What’s next?”, not “Look what we did!”

And then planning season rolls around and you’re expected to articulate your impact with clarity, data, and confidence.

Suddenly, the past twelve months feel like a blur. You remember the big fires. You remember the tough moments. But the meaningful improvements? The small wins that transformed someone’s experience? The behind-the-scenes effort that made your organization healthier?

They vanish unless you’ve been tracking them.

Today’s newsletter is designed to help you fix that. We’re going to walk through how to collect and organize your wins, turn them into persuasive storytelling, and then leverage them in making the case for what you want to accomplish in 2026.

Because here’s what I want every People Ops leader to hear and embody:

You’ve done more than you think. And your work matters more than you realize.

Your forever cheerleader,

Jill

P.S. A friendly reminder that The Modern Manager’s Guide to Hosting an EOY Team Retro is free and ready to be shared with your organization’s managers. We’ve even drafted an email (found here), so it’s easy to send along!

P.P.S. PLEASE hit reply and share one win you’ve had this year! I really, really, really want to hear about them - big or small.

P.P.P.S. No but really, please share! Even if we’ve never met. Or you’ve never responded to a newsletter before. I’m going to read and celebrate every single one!

How to Collect Your Wins From the Year (And Use Them to Gain Momentum in 2026)

Why Capturing Wins Matters More Than Ever

The end of the year is when leadership teams make decisions that shape the next one. Headcount. Budget. Priorities. New initiatives.

This is the window where you can influence the direction of 2026. But to do that well, you need a clear picture of what you’ve already accomplished. Not just because it feels good, but because it’s the evidence behind your requests.

The truth is that much of your work happens behind the scenes. You solve problems before they escalate, smooth out friction before people notice it, and supports leaders in ways that never show up in a dashboard. These wins matter just as much as the big milestones, but they don’t announce themselves. You have to surface them.

Documenting your wins isn’t bragging. It’s how you make your work visible enough to shape decisions.

Why Most People Ops Teams Don’t Track Wins (And It’s Not Their Fault)

You spend your days responding, supporting, coordinating, calming, and advising. You’re asked to be strategic and reactive, empathetic and firm, people-focused and metrics-ready. Wins happen across dozens of tiny touchpoints and rarely show up in clean dashboards.

Add to that: no built-in system for capturing progress, the fact that emotional labor is hard to quantify, and the reality that you’re usually focused on supporting others, not celebrating yourself.

If that’s the boat you’re in, no, you’re not behind. You simply need a way to gather what would otherwise stay invisible. And once you do, you’ll see how much of an impact you’ve truly had.

What Counts as a ‘Win’ Anyway?

People Ops wins come in all shapes and sizes, and most of them are easier to overlook than celebrate. If it made work easier, clearer, faster, more consistent, or more human, it qualifies. Wins don’t need to be dramatic. They need to be accurate.

Maybe you…

• shortened the average time to hire.

• updated onboarding steps so new hires feel supported by Day 1.

• made yourself available for a team member having a particularly hard day.

• revamped a recurring meeting agenda so it actually works.

• helped a manager navigate a tough performance conversation.

• created a survey, pulled insights, and influenced a leadership decision.

These are real, meaningful wins. And they deserve a place in your story.

A Simple, Repeatable System for Collecting Wins

We’re going to use a straightforward process that you can implement in an hour - and maintain all year long.

1. Create a ‘Wins Repository’

To get started, choose a single home where you’ll drop in notes, screenshots, and emails from the year. This could be a Notion page, a Google Doc, a Slack channel with a few key team members, or a folder full of screenshots.

Don’t worry about formatting yet. You simply need a central place where you can drop “wins” and organize it later.

I’ve got a “brag file” filter in gmail that allows me to easily flag positive messages. When I’m having an especially hard day, I’ll open it and read through a few to boost my spirit.

2. Start With Key Sources

To build your initial list, go digging in:

Your calendar: Meeting topics are quiet indicators of progress.

Your task management system: Seeing your completed to-dos can jog a lot of memories!

Slack or email: Praise, problem-solving threads, or approvals you pushed through.

Your camera roll / desktop: There have likely been moments throughout the year where you’ve screenshot meaningful wins. They may be scattered like confetti, but there’s a goldmine here.

Your team: Don’t be afraid to ask your colleges and team members what wins they witnessed you experiencing this year! Others see things we miss or write off.

This initial pass will jog your memory and surface more wins than you expect - promise!

3. Turn Moments Into Win Statements

Once you’ve consolidated your wins into one document, highlight the ones that are most valuable to share. Then, organize them into simple statements that are easily digestible and illustrate the value of your work.

If you’re feeling stuck, I highly recommend referencing this list of action verbs from the Muse. It’s probably my most consistently referenced and share article of the last decade because it always inspires insights on what you’ve truly accomplished.

When you’re ready to start documenting, here’s a framework you can use:

Here’s an example of what that might look like:

4. Make It a Team Ritual

Wins stick when they’re shared, not stored in your head.

Build a rhythm that scales:

• Create a weekly or monthly “wins roundup” where everyone shares one improvement or success.

• Start a dedicated Slack channel for small victories so they don’t disappear into the scroll.

• Add a 10-minute “What worked this month?” reflection to your first meeting of the month.

• Tie this directly into your team’s end-of-year retro using our guide so December doesn’t feel like a mad dash.

• Encourage each team member to maintain their own private “win stash” to use in performance reviews.

This rhythm builds a culture of reflection instead of a once-a-year scramble.

How to Use Your Wins to Advocate for What You Need in 2026

Beyond giving you the warm fuzzies, your collected wins will serve as a powerful persuasion tool going into 2026. Having this information in a central place that you can easily reference is yet another way to ensure your place at the strategic table.

As we discussed on our last newsletter, executives think in terms of patterns and outcomes. They want to know how your work influenced the business and most specifically, how it will benefit them.

Your role is to translate what you did into language that connects those dots: what changed, why it mattered, how it shaped decisions or employee experience, and what’s possible from here.

Having your wins in one easily accessible place makes this possible.

And that’s a win we can all get behind!

Things We’re Loving Right Now

The “in case you missed it” edition….

Doing things a little differently this week by sharing a roundup of our latest newsletters, each of which is focused on making the next six months just a bit brighter and easier!

The Leadership Listening Tour. Our take on wrapping up the year relationally. If you’ve never done a leadership listening tour, now is definitely the time!

Navigating the Wild West of AI. A practical guide to wrapping your head around AI as a people leader when everything seems to be moving a million miles an hour.

The Modern Managers Guide to Hosting an EOY Retro. Everything your people managers need to host a 2025 reflection workshop with their team!

Still here? It’s not too late to hit respond and send me a win from this year! ☺️