Ending Well: Lions, Horses, Dogs, and Your Team
During this last month of the school year, the Blueprint Schools blog has been focusing on the theme “Ending Well.” Not just finishing. Not just celebrating. But ending in a way that brings clarity to the work that has been done and highlighting the things that matter most in your ministry. Ryan Kirchoff focused on ending well with your students (Ending Well: Did This Year Matter), Dana Kirchoff focused on ending well with your supporting church or churches (Ending Well: Celebrating Church-School Connection), and this week Jake Unke focuses on ending well with your teammates.
Ending Well with Your Team
Ending well with your team is one of the most important moments of the entire year. Unfortunately, there are plenty of obstacles standing in the way. Final exams, graduations, school picnics, technology turn-ins, concerts, banquets, and the seemingly endless wrap-up meetings all compete for attention while everyone’s mind drifts toward the mai tai waiting on a beach somewhere.
For many leaders, the focus unintentionally shifts from ending well to simply surviving.
Our hair is on fire, and the only bucket of water feels like it’s sitting on the other side of locked school doors once the final bell rings and the building finally empties. The end of the year is uniquely stressful and busy, and I am not here to suggest cutting back on the memorable moments that make the end of the year special. Those events become core memories for students. Years from now, kids may not remember the lesson from third period, but they will definitely remember the time they smoked the principal in the face with a kickball while he tried to run to first base.
Those moments matter. But through all the noise, leaders must remember the people who will still be there after the students leave: the staff. They are the ones staying late for sporting events, PTO meetings, concerts, graduations, and bulletin board rebuilds. Focus on them because they deserve it.
Finishing a school year and ending it well are not always the same thing. How a team ends one year often shapes how they begin the next.
People remember endings just as much as beginnings. We talk a great deal about first impressions, and rightfully so, but endings tend to linger in people’s minds. Think about Chick-fil-A. Most people leave smiling not because the chicken sandwich changed their life, but because the final words they heard from a wildly cordial teenager were, “It was my pleasure.”
Endings stick with people.
Connect Personally
Whether you are four days away from sanity or already locking the doors for the summer, take time to check in individually with your teammates. Ask about summer plans, debate who is winning the NBA Finals, or talk about what they are excited about for next school year.
Connect personally without an agenda. Your staff already knows how much work remains, and the last thing they need is another speech about grit and perseverance. What they often need is a leader who notices the weight they are carrying and takes time to simply be present with them in the middle of it.
Even end-of-year meetings can become opportunities to build culture instead of merely obstacles standing in the way of freedom. Change that narrative: provide lunch, bring cold drinks, and do a team building game that makes everyone roll their eyes, but I can guarantee they will also smile. Show your team appreciation in tangible ways.
And while reflecting on the year, there is a framework I often use: “Feed the lions. Ride the horses. Cut the dogs loose.”
Feed the Lions, Ride the Horses, Cut the Dogs Loose
Feed the Lions: What energized your team this year? What programs, events, or moments genuinely moved the needle? What made people excited about ministry? Invest more resources here.
Ride the Horses: What works consistently and accomplishes its purpose well? These are the dependable systems and traditions that continue producing positive outcomes without requiring excessive energy. Keep riding them.
Cut the Dogs Loose: What drained your team? What felt like obligation more than impact? What traditions continue simply because “we have always done it”? Let these things go.
There is no reason to continue maintaining programs or events that exhaust people while producing minimal value. And yes, sometimes eliminating those things feels a little like an “Old Yeller” moment. But remember: even that story ended with the hope of a new future. Schools can have those moments too.
The bottom line is simple: listen to your staff and make decisions that honor their service. The beauty of this routine is that you are not only recapping the school year, but also shaping the one that is to come. In doing this, you are making time to appreciate a year that can never be repeated: celebrate the funny stories, reflect on the meaningful moments, laugh about the chaos, learn from the frustrations, and pursue growth together.
Because if the way a team ends a year shapes how they begin the next one, then leaders should treat the ending with just as much intentionality as the first day of school. Strong culture is not only built during exciting beginnings but in exhausted hallways during the final days of May. This is when a team realizes their leaders genuinely see them, appreciate them, and care enough to finish the race alongside them.
Next Steps for the End of the Year
Personally connect with your teammates on an individual basis.
Engage in meaningful growth by listening to your team’s answers to the following questions:
What can you pour resources into to maximize?
What is trusted and consistent and should remain?
What is draining and needs to be eliminated?
Celebrate the journey together because this year will never happen the same way again.
Thinking about how you want to do things differently next year? Schedule a consultation with our team!
