Christmas is around the corner, and the spirit of Christmas is starting to fill the air. But can the spirit of Christmas affect your company?

The holidays could be a very challenging time for your company. Even more so in these unusual circumstances.

At Optimist Performance we want to help you get through this time of the year. 

How can the spirit of Christmas affect your company?

The holidays affects people in different ways. Some people may be stressed to meet deadlines while others are already in the holiday mood. 

Statistics show that 27% of employees are less motivated during Christmas than any other time of year. 

This year, on top of the usual stress, most of us are working from home, we have been isolated for a long time and the future looks uncertain. 

Now more than ever it is important to keep your team engaged and motivated. 

Are you succeeding to engage with your team and colleagues?

Our reality is changing constantly, we are working from home again and living our third lockdown. 

It is important to know how all this uncertainty is affecting your team. You need to pay attention to their feelings. 

Are they feeling happy or sad about the holidays? Are they feeling stressed about meeting deadlines? What are their plans, or expectations?

Making an effort and taking the time to really understand their personal circumstances can give you a good idea as to what they need. 

Also, everyone likes to feel heard, and appreciated, even more around this time of the year. 

Why is this so important?

Well, it is not a secret that if we are feeling happy, appreciated, and we have a sense of belonging, we will perform better. 

Feelings create Emotions → Emotions control Behaviours → Behaviours determine your Decision-Making

“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” –John C. Maxwell

Ideas to help your team around Christmas:

Now, we know how Christmas can affect our companies performance and why it is important to engage with our teams.

Here are some ideas that can help and how:

• Take the time to reorganise tasks.

Make your time management skills shine. Maybe get someone who has already finished their job to help someone who still has a way to go or create groups so they can help each other.

Create a united team. They either fail or succeed, but they do it together. Having common goals and tasks will help them act as a team. 

An example of this could be your own family, imagine that your family is organising the Christmas dinner, and you are in charge of assigning tasks. In this case, you would take into consideration how much time each of them has, what are they better at (cooking, decorating, …), etc… 

If we translate this example to your company, you can do the exact same thing. 

• Make them feel valued: Christmas is the perfect time to practice the art of giving.

An important part of being a great leader is to make people feel valued. A Christmas gift is a perfect way to make them feel appreciated.

It is not about the money or gift itself, but about the gesture. The important thing is to show them how you feel about them and about the work they have been doing. 

• Create a community: A place where they belong. 

Spending time together after office hours can create a stronger sense of community and belonging.

We all love Christmas Parties, celebrating with our colleagues and just having some fun. If in other years, we were eager to celebrate, surely this year the feeling is even stronger. 

We can´t go out and meet in a pub, but we still can virtually spend time together.

The important thing is not what we do, it is how it makes us feel. 

We are Optimists, and we believe that every day gives us a new opportunity to do and be better.

We hope this content will help you to achieve your goals and become a better leader for your team. 

Also, we would love to hear from you. What are your thoughts? How are you coping with Christmas time at work?