Surviving and Thriving: Leadership Strategies for the Holiday Season

TLC 12.4.24 Mary and Layci Q&A
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Mary: [00:01:00] Hello, friends, and welcome back to Confessions of a Terrible Leader. I'm your friendly neighborhood podcast producer, Mary Skop, and I am here with our leader, Layci Nelson. Layci, welcome back to your show.

Layci: Well, thank you, Mary. Always good to be on this side of the table. I enjoy these quite a bit. Yes, I'm ready.

Layci: Let's jump in.

Mary: What are we doing today? Yeah, we're going to jump right into it because every person on the earth right now. We've entered the busy holiday season where so often we just struggle to feel like we're staying afloat. So that's what we're going to get into today. I wanted to ask you to share with the listeners as a leader, can we finish strong during the holiday season?

Mary: And in addition to that, what are some concrete ways, some simple steps. that you as a leader can finish strong and you can lead [00:02:00] your team well, recognizing the limitations of the season, overwhelm those particular things. So have at it.

Layci: Yes. Okay. Woo. All right. So finishing strong.

Layci: . I'm thinking about this on a couple fronts. First of all, I want to just recognize that everyone listening and all of your team members are full human beings. And we have not only all of the extra commitments that come up during the work holiday season, like holiday parties, and it's also in the thick of budgeting season right now and getting the approvals if you have a board or a department you have to submit to.

Layci: You have all these extras, right, happening that's going on. But we also have these home lives. That have family commitments and family parties, and I've got two kids, one in middle, one in high school. And we did our family calendar for December this last weekend, and it's bananas.

Layci: Yes. Relatable. Just the family, calendar has five different musical [00:03:00] commitments on top of all of the other things and the family parties and, oh, by the way, this all has to be crammed in before school gets out, right?

Layci: So it's, A lot. I think the first thing is just to kind of pause and remember everybody has a ton going on right now. Yeah. And at the same time, you can't completely take your foot off the gas. Right. You can, you can, you're going to see the results of that probably two to three months down the line from now.

Layci: Yes. If you let up on your industry, it may be more immediate, but for us, It's going to be two or three months down the line. We're going to start to feel that we have let up during this time. So prioritization becomes critical this time of year when everything's important. What's actually important. Nothing.

Layci: Right. Yeah. I say that over and over again. Yep. It's realizing maybe you have your top three priorities. For every week, and you're really clear with your team, maybe it needs to be the top one for a little bit, and it's a [00:04:00] really important exercise and discipline to remind everybody and yourself, Hey, these are the things that need to happen first that are non negotiables, the rest, yes, this time of year is stressful, we all have a lot happening, so it's finding that balance, and if you can't honestly say what's most important, You have a lot of work to do as a leader.

Layci: One of the things that I find extremely frustrating when I go into work with someone is when they're just hyper resistant to prioritizing because they've really bought into this lie that everything's important and everything has to get done. Mm hmm. When literally, if that's the way you're going to think, you're going to keep spinning your wheels.

Layci: Yes. perpetuity, right? You have to be able to prioritize that's part of strategic thinking. It's actually a business skill and you can develop it. But if you're consistently saying, Oh, everything's equally important. You haven't developed [00:05:00] the skill strategy yet. it's something to work on. Good news.

Layci: It's learnable. You know, you got to invest the time and figure it out. you need to figure out between now and the end of the year. What is. That thing, one to two things every week that are really going to move the needle, that are the non negotiables. And sometimes they're things like filing reports so you don't have fines later, right?

Layci: And that might be it for that week, if you've got a two day work week, right? So it's just being reasonable and then realistic, and then also working with your team, but not so fully disengaging. That you just kind of aimlessly float in this weird time between now and the new year. Right. Because between now, really this week, we're recording this the week of Thanksgiving, so between now and the new year, so many people just check out.

Layci: Yes. Right. It can happen as early

Mary: as right after [00:06:00] Halloween, even. It's like, well. It's true. You know, just kind of coast till the end of the year. So the engagement there is I think can be a real challenge,

Layci: but

Mary: I really appreciate you leading with remember that we're all human. We are all insanely busy. And when you speak about prioritization, it reminds me of one really critical skill.

Mary: In academia, when I was getting my master's, the first thing I had to decide was what am I not going to do? Not what am I going to do? But again, what am I not going to do? Flipping it on its head like that can really reveal what is the top priority. And that applies of course, to the business world, to everything.

Mary: Decide what can you really blow off? And what do you really need to bring to the forefront? And sometimes it is as unglamorous as we have to fill out these forms. We have to file this paperwork or else it's going to bite us

Layci: in the butt down the road. right. It's practice. It's.

Layci: Figuring it out [00:07:00] and being intentional goes such a long way, so much further than just, well, I guess just whatever comes up, we'll deal with it, which is unfortunately how a lot of people operate, especially between now and the end of the year. It's really becoming disciplined. If you're not already, it's coming up with a system for how you understand and decide what you're going to focus on each week.

Layci: Then having the discipline and the accountability to sticking to it. Holding yourself and your team members to it. . So maybe a list that's usually five items long is going to be one or two from now till the end of the year. Yeah. .

Layci: It's finding that pace that's sustainable. In the current situation, but you're still walking, right? You can't just get off the track. You can but you're gonna pay for it later, right? It's like putting it on credit. The interest is going to catch up to you. Yep. And if you do make that choice, at least know you're making it and plan for it because you're going to get a dip.

Layci: Something will dip later.

Mary: [00:08:00] absolutely. Ah, those are very helpful insights on managing the rest of the year, this end of year time. With all the challenges and we're keeping this an extra short episode today again, because we know how busy all of you are Layci, is there anything else you want to address when it comes to surviving this time of year?

Layci: One quick little thing, surviving, thriving, may I even dare say? Yes. We have a free download that we can drop in the notes for our listeners. Because this is going to go before Christmas, right Mary? Yes.

Mary: Yes. Okay.

Mary: First week of December actually. Perfect. Very soon. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Merry

Layci: Christmas. Happy Holidays. We have a PDF for you called, probably the best employee gift guide ever written. Something silly and fun like that. Yeah. And so here's the deal. If you want Leaders, unless it's like the coolest swag ever, a cup with your logo on it is not a [00:09:00] meaningful thank you to most of your employees.

Layci: So, here's a branded shirt that you have to wear anyway. So, when possible, giving gifts during this time of year is a good opportunity to appreciate even if it's something that is very, you know, I know budgets are tight. A lot of us are coming out of a year that wasn't what we were hoping for. So even something small can still be extremely meaningful.

Layci: So this gift guide walks you through some like thought processes around how to give a meaningful gift and in multiple price ranges. And also gives you some examples. And I haven't actually looked at it since last year, but there's no like Amazon links, right? You're not getting like, Oh, buy this. Yeah. But it really is a way to thoughtfully think about how do I give a gift that is going to actually be appreciated even if it's something that doesn't have a huge dollar value.

Layci: But the thought behind it is going to go [00:10:00] far.

Layci: Another way to survive to thrive. We all want our people, especially if you're a regular listener, you want your people to know how much they mean to you. And that. They truly are valued, that they matter, and hopefully this little gift guide we put together will just take some of the heavy lifting thought work out of it so you can go, Oh, good idea.

Layci: Great. Going to go with that. Yes. We have that for you and we'll get that all linked up. Give us your email address and we'll get it sent over.

Layci: That's wonderful.

Mary: Anything to help eliminate some decision fatigue? Yes. It is a very helpful guide. We'll absolutely link to that in the show notes, provide a little extra support during the holiday season. Yes. Yeah. So Layci, really appreciate your time, you being here. I know how busy you are because I see your calendar.

Mary: So I really appreciate you taking the time. Would you see us out on today's episode?

Layci: Absolutely. Okay, friends, let's all get through these holidays together. Not just get through, let's [00:11:00] enjoy. Right. Let's enjoy. Oh gosh, you handed it over to a talker. One more tidbit. Perfect. Go for it. Lean into your traditions.

Layci: If you have some things that are meaningful for your family, and I'm talking about your home life, right? Because it's all is, is interconnected. Like we have this tradition that if I skip it,

Layci: what can you not do? This one can't come off. We can let go of some other things. But the tradition for us, the day that we decorate the house for Christmas, I make this ridiculously, it's really simple. It's called moose stew. We make a moose stew. I don't have moose meat. If anyone ever has real moose meat, I would love to try it.

Layci: So like, ship it to me. I would appreciate you forever.

Layci: We make moose stew. It has to cook for hours. And so it fills the whole house up with the smell and We decorate the tree and we decorate the house for Christmas, and that is a tradition that I will always make time for. I do not imagine my [00:12:00] children, as long as they are living in our home, ever letting me get away with not making mousse stew on the decoration day, right?

Layci: So pick those really meaningful traditions. And I actually invited my kids to help us create the December calendar this year. They co created it. The whole family sat down and I was like, all right, what are the non negotiables for you guys? What are the things you absolutely want to do? So we settled on that and family movie night every Sunday, and we already pre chose all the movies we're going to watch.

Layci: They're all Christmas ones. Such a good

Mary: idea to pre choose.

Layci: Yeah. Oh, we spend so much time fighting over which movie we think we want to watch.

Mary: I feel your pain. So we all

Layci: pre, I was like, here's the list. This is when we're watching this. So it's all scheduled out. So there you go. That's a really practical, like, that works in my house.

Layci: I that would work

Mary: in yours. I love that. And it's always a really good reminder to lean into your own traditions. We do something similar. We go to the little tree lot to pick out our tree after Thanksgiving. And the kids always name the tree, an [00:13:00] extremely absurd name. I love, you know, how odd my kids are.

Mary: I mean, I love your children. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Let's just put it that way are wonderful. And we pick out a tree. They name it something ridiculous and we decorate the tree and watch elf. And I don't make moose stew, but I have this like sweet and smoky chili recipe. Oh, perfect. Yeah. And that cornbread and everyone is so happy.

Mary: But that is one of those things that my kids would be like, we are absolutely not eliminating this. Right. But I love it. You know, I love it too. And it's, you know, it sets us up for the holiday season and it gives you all the good feels and we can reminisce over. the absurd names of the trees from Christmas past.

Layci: I always make them look at their tiny handprints. Oh yeah. Because I have the kid decorations from preschool. Yes. Preschool years all the way, actually infancy, all the way up to when they stopped making them. Right. Yeah, they get the full, like, [00:14:00] nostalgia mom trip down memory lane, whether they want it or not, but I think they secretly do.

Mary: I think they do, and we have some really, we laugh our butts off over the ornaments they made. They're hysterical, and they're so ugly.

Layci: Oh, they're, they're so hilarious. They're

Mary: so funny. And now, of course, like, the kids are decorating the tree and just laughing.

Layci: Yeah.

Mary: Those are the types of things that feel the most meaningful.

Layci: Yeah.

Mary: Gonna lean into that.

Layci: So there we go. Yeah. That was a

Mary: very fun rabbit trail.

Layci: Some on each side. So, anyways. Anyways, friends. We want you to have a great holiday season. We want you to lean into your own traditions, whatever those may be. Hey, and if you have some traditions, drop us a note. We'd love to hear from listeners.

Layci: We'd love to know what people are doing this holiday season. Yeah. Remember to take some time for the most important things and not everything can be the most important thing. That'll save you a lot of mental anguish as well. Until next [00:15:00] time, friends, go manage like a leader.

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