Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus
Harvey, Eric., Cottrell, David, and Lucia, Al. (2003), Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus.
Dallas: Walk the Talk Company.
Whether we believe in Santa Claus or not, we can learn from Christmas traditions by acquiring leadership strategies from Santa. Below are eight tenets of Santa’s process; I believe they are applicable to today’s organizations.
- BUILD A WONDERFUL WORKSHOP – If you build it, they will come. Leaders must be able to create a culture that will attract, retain, and sustain a place where the best talent wants to be. Leaders must create psychological safety (Edmondson) in order to unleash the best ideas and to put them into ACTION. Leaders must create it. It doesn’t happen through divine intervention or magic of the silver bullet.
- Make The Mission The Main Thing
- Focus On Your People As Well As Your Purpose
- Let Values Be Your Guide
- CHOOSE YOUR REINDEER WISELY – Who do you want around you? A good leader wants smart, humble, and hungry-for-learning people around them. The best leaders create conditions for truth telling and Radical Candor (Kim Scott). You can be the best leader in the world BUT you cannot lead alone. Nobody is that smart or has that much time. The more diverse thoughts and ideas that are generated will result in greater success for a leader to accomplishing goals. Hire learners with intellectual curiosity.
- Hire Tough So You Can Manage Easy
- Promote The Right Ones… For The Right Reasons
- Go For The Diversity Advantage
- MAKE A LIST AND CHECK IT TWICE – Coaching and supervising is only as good as the follow up; without follow up, people will make it up. Leaders who have read Joyce & Showers research or Marshall Goldsmith’s “Leadership is a Contact Sport” already know this. If an area is not performing, let the team help figure out some solutions. Organizations are systems; they are not isolated cogs. What affects one part will ultimately affect other parts. Intended consequences sometimes happen. Unintended consequences always happen.
- Plan Your Work
- Work Your Plan
- Make The Most of What You Have
- THE ELVES – These are the frontline people who make things work. Honor them, thank them, and show appreciation in any way you can. They are the leader’s lifeblood. Many times, the support staff has saved leaders and systems. There is an old story that goes like this: if all the bosses die tomorrow, nobody would notice for months. If the support staff died tomorrow, everything would stop immediately. Show gratitude every chance you get. Administrative assistants get little recognition and are the main reason things get done. Mahalo to all.
- Open Your Ears To Participation
- Pay Attention To How You Are Perceived
- Walk A While In THEIR Shoes
- GET BEYOND THE RED WAGONS – Do not circle; expand the area of influence. Karen Kaiser Clark said, “life is change, growth is optional, choose wisely.” Leaders must decide what to keep and what to change. This is a both/and model. See Barry Johnson’s book AND if you want to know how to manage wicked problems. There is Tyranny of OR, which is a blog on the Learning Omnivore website. There are problems to solve and there are polarities to manage. Make sure you know which is which or lots of time and talent will be wasted.
- Help Everyone Accept The Reality of Change
- Remember: The Customer Is Really In Charge
- Teach “The Business” of The Business
- SHARE THE MILK AND COOKIES – No sustainable advantage is done alone. Successful organizations have good results because of a team effort. Leaders must know how to maximize team input, processes, and output. Team Smarts is one of the five elements Adam Bryant writes about in “The Corner Office.” Leaders must have a repertoire of how to facilitate individuals, small teams, and large organizations. Leaders must communicate with clarity and a compelling vision. See “Creating Talent Density” by Sommers for 25 strategies from education and business.
- Help Them See The Difference They Make
- Do Right By Those Who Do Right
- Expand The Reinforcement Possibilities
- FIND OUT WHO’S NAUGHTY AND NICE – Respectful is certainly a baseline. Do not tolerate integrity breakdowns! What leaders permit, leaders promote. At the same time involve renegades and edge thinkers (assuming they are appropriate). Trees and bushes grow at the edge and ends, not in the middle. Listen; be curious about new ideas and take them into consideration. Engage the quiet leaders; they may process things slower, considering options and outcomes, AND, they may have the answer. Transparency is vital. Show courage to confront any issue that is wrong or is against the organizational values. Remember, bad news travels faster than good news. Get out in front of bad news and confront it directly.
- Confront Performance Problems…Early
- Coach “The Majority In The Middle”
- Don’t Forget “The Super Stars”
- BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE – People watch the leaders feet, they don’t listen to the leader’s tongue. What the leader does, the modeling, and the minimal daylight between what is said and what is done is more important than giving rah-rah speeches. St. Francis of Assisi said, (I paraphrase) ‘if your walking isn’t your preaching, there is no point in walking anywhere to preach. Keep that in mind. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “What you do speaks so loudly people can’t hear what you are saying.” The more daylight that exists between words and actions, more fear, doubt, and anger will show up in an organization apart.
- Set The Example
- Establish Guidelines and Accountability
- Remember That Everything Counts
Thank You Santa
Bill