The next six weeks can be tough for businesses. You have laid out your plans for the new year, have some great ideas to implement, some problems with solutions in your heard and Boom!, along comes Thanksgiving and the six week holiday period. Days off, the distractions of preparing for Christmas, kids being off from school, vacation days, and parties all combine to shift the focus of your office from the business at hand.
How do you navigate this period? Do you channel your inner Scrooge, chain your company to their desks, disconnect the internet and have armed guards frisk people at the door for pumpkin pie? Probably not. Do you dress like Santa, put out a daily buffet table and open bar, pipe in the holiday tunes and allow employees to online shop til they drop and come in when it works for them? Probably not.
While I wish I could ban Christmas music until December 10th (at least) and keep the stores from decorating until the morning of Black Friday, that ain’t happening. So, for now, here some tips for keeping your focus and making progress while not missing the holiday season:
- While you don’t want to implement any big new plans during this time, meet with people, get them excited about what’s coming and work out any kinks that come out of these discussions.
- Don’t put off solving problems. Yes, it’s the holiday season, but delaying a firing or not addressing an issue just adds stress and hurts the company.
- Make sure you communicate company activities, hours, days off and other pertinent information to employees. Have them schedule their vacation in advance, so you know who will be around and what areas may need a little help or covering.
- If things are a little slow, do some of those internal projects that always get pushed back. Clean out some store rooms, files or even try to organize/clean out folders in your computer.
- When you do have company holiday activities, enjoy them, learn something new about a fellow employee or their family.
- It’s a great time of year to do something as a company to help somebody. We do something every year and it’s amazing to see how it brings everyone together and the response is always overwhelming, even in these challenging times.
- Try not to sing holiday tunes at your desk during work hours or have a talking Santa on your desk. It’s just not right. Do bring in some cookies or pies that are fresh, we don’t mind if they are leftover from your parties out of the office, just make sure they are fresh.
Overall, this next six week should flow about like any other six weeks of the year, just with a few distractions, a few days off, a little less focus and a few less employees in the office. Business has to continue, problems need to be solved, and final planning for next year needs to happen. Keep a balance, enjoy the holidays and things will go smoothly.
How do you keep your team and yourself focused through the holidays?