The 3 Leadership Lessons of Santa Claus

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, especially if you have young children who bubble with excitement as the calendar creeps closer to Christmas Eve. All of them are mesmerized by the approaching visit of Kristopher Kringle, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas – SANTA CLAUS. While the kids have visions of PSPs and Guitar Hero dancing in their heads (What happened to sugar plums, they are much cheaper?). Everyone in business works longer hours in order to make up for lost productivity during the holiday break. That is all good, but don’t forget to continue being a committed student of leadership. There are some wonderful lessons drawn from Christmas. I think we all need to take a moment, grab a Starbucks Holiday Caramel Cider, and consider the 3 Leadership Lessons of Santa Claus. n nLESSON I – EVERY LEADER NEEDS A LISTnnWhen I was young I really started to pay attention to my behavior around Halloween. My first prompt would be the arrival of the Sears catalog. I would see the catalog and my first thought was of the mountain of presents I would receive, my second, almost simultaneous thought, was of THE LIST. Not a wish list of presents, but THE LIST. The one kept by Santa Claus, The Naughty and Nice List- THE LIST. I would calculate and evaluate my behavior over the past 10 months and recognize I might have a shot at a few presents if I acted appropriate for the next 55 days. I turned into an angel child. I helped clean up dinner, bring in groceries, whatever- It was “Yes Sir and Yes Ma’am” to anyone two grades ahead of me. I was consciously accountable all because of THE LIST. n nLeaders need a list. A leader encourages and rewards good performance and a leader takes action to correct poor performance. Keeping tabs on your team is great, it allows you to recall performance over an extended period of time, recognize trends and reward and train in a deliberate fashion. It works for Santa Claus, it can work for you. LESSON II- EVERY LEADER HAS IMPACT THROUGH PRESENCEnnThe Christmas Season officially starts when Santa Claus makes an appearance in the Holiday Parade. He is always on the very last float and when you see him the game completely changes. He is no longer far off at the North Pole, he is in your geographic location. Any appropriate behavior modification not instilled with awareness of THE LIST is cemented with his presence. Santa Claus has tremendous impact when he makes an appearance. nLeaders must be aware of the effect their presence has on their team. People act differently with the leader in the room and things are done differently too. Recognizing the impact of presence can be advantageous for increasing morale, measuring productivity and developing teamwork. Be aware of the impact you have when you are in front of your team and deliberately maximize the positive effects you can create by your presence, Santa Claus does. LESSON III- EVERY LEADER MUST SACRIFICEnnCan you imagine how tough it must be keeping track of all the children on Earth, building toys for them, and delivering to millions of homes in one night? It takes a special kind of leader to supervise and manage such a huge endeavor. Santa Claus does it all, every year, without complaint. He sacrifices his time, resources and considerable energy in order to make little children happy. I will never forget, as long as I live, Christmas morning 1970. When I hurried out of bed to the tree, I could not believe my eyes. I received a NASA certified space suit, walkie-talkies, a very cool farm set, and the greatest gift ever, a German Shepherd puppy I called Bullet. Now, having the benefit of age, I recognize it must have been really tough for Santa Claus to provide such great gifts- but he sacrificed his own self-interest to bring joy into my life. Leaders must find the opportunity to create lasting impressions in the lives of their team members. Most leaders already sacrifice tons of time and energy for the success of the organization. In my work I have noticed it has become the rule, not the exception, for the executive team to work more than twelve hours every day. They normally get home, have a few hours with the family and knock out more work when the kids are asleep. That commitment is commendable and I recognize sacrifice is synonymous with leadership. I humbly suggest we orient our sacrifice to developing our teams and the people in them. Find out what one thing you can do for a member of your team that would completely change their life. It may be something simple like giving them better communication skills or helping them define their strengths. The power of taking the time to invest in your team will be a sacrifice well worth the effort. The topic of sacrificial leadership reminds me of a wonderful story about a baby being born in the humblest of circumstances and in adulthood he became a beloved leader, eventually sacrificing all he has for the betterment of mankind. What a marvelous example. Santa Claus followed it; can you? n