Hello everyone,

There is something I genuinely love about Easter weekend, not least because of the chocolate. It always feels like the first deep breath of the year. The clocks have gone forward, the evenings are lighter, and something in the air just feels different. After the slog of January, February and March, it feels like we made it through, and things are looking brighter ahead.

But just as we are feeling more upbeat, we can find that by April the goals that felt so clear and energising back in January have often got a little blurry.

A lot can happen in just 12 weeks. Priorities shift. Someone went off sick. A new project popped up unexpectedly. Another team or function moved slower than you needed them to, and suddenly you are not where you thought you would be. The goal is still there on the horizon, but the path to it has changed.

If you are leading a team, a function, or an entire department, what happens in the next few weeks matters more than you might think.

As a mid-level manager thinking about what has changed will help you refocus your team, but you may be able to muddle through.

But if you are a head of department, a director or a VP, the stakes are much higher. The people below you are waiting for signals about what matters most in Q2. Without that clarity coming from you, they will fill the gap themselves, and that usually means wasted effort, misaligned priorities, and a quiet kind of confusion and frustration that costs everyone time. This is the moment to take stock of what worked in Q1, what did not, and what that tells you for how you lead the next 12 weeks.

This is why the end of a quarter matters so much.

It means taking time to stop, stand back, and be honest about where things actually stand. What has changed since January? What do you now know that you did not know then? And crucially, what conversations do you need to be having to get things back on track?

In my work with clients, I use a GPS goal setting framework, and it is built around exactly this kind of moment. Because a good goal is not just about what you want to achieve. It is about how you are going to achieve it, and how you will know whether you are on track or drifting. If that is something you want to dig into more, I have a video that walks you through it and it is worth a watch before Q2 kicks off.

So before the next quarter begin in earnest, here are the three questions I would encourage you to think about.

• What are your top three priorities for Q2, are they still the right ones and does everyone have the same view as you?
• Who in your team needs support, and what kind of support would actually make a difference?
• And which cross-functional relationships need a conversation, the kind where you get on the same page or remove a blockage before the friction becomes more of a problem?

That is it. Three questions. It needs an honest hour of time to face into the things you probably already know need attention.

But first, rest. That is not a throwaway line. The Easter break is one of the best opportunities to step away, especially this side of summer. Be with your family, your friends. The Q2 clarity can wait until Tuesday.

Have a wonderful Easter, I’m off to hunt for some chocolate.

Helen