In fact, with the wealth of excitement that stems from the present giving and holiday indulgences, entrepreneurs, startups and innovators can easily lose sight of what is important.
Raise a glass to employee empowerment
Clearly, in the run up to a long holiday, employees can fall into a situation where they begin to cruise, with their output dropping as a consequence. In mobile, our client activities spike during the festive season as more people have leisure time to enjoy mobile apps. During this time, it is critical to have a motivated, driven employee base making sure we close the year out strong.
There is often a pent up sense of anxiety within start-ups resulting from employees being able to see and evaluate internal challenges and roadblocks, yet not having the time or resources to be able to act upon their insights.
The run up to Christmas provides the perfect opportunity to change this by empowering employees to act in the company’s best interest. Create forums for issues to be raised and resources to be tagged to solving them. During the holidays, the frequency of these “scrum” meetings may ramp up, but what will result is a well informed, less stressed out team.
Consider your client’s wish list
Apart from proactively addressing roadblocks, organisations should also view this period as an opportunity to take stock of the needs of their customers and fully evaluate their business priorities. The season presents many opportunities to meet and greet with clients and partners.
View each of these interactions as an open opportunity to strengthen your relationships, and provide a listening ear to their wants and needs. By doing so, you can not only build rapport, but also get a proactive start at laying out a client-informed product roadmap for the year ahead. This is of the utmost importance in the technology industry where step changes in development can easily make businesses redundant overnight.
Walk the work-life balance talk
‘Work-life balance’ is overused within businesses but it is actually something that companies should not pay lip service to and re-evaluate in a different way. Christmas is the time where burnout becomes evident and those feeling the strain of a hectic year end up being less productive and starting to wither with the winter blues.
Encourage your team to recharge their batteries with a well-deserved holiday, and set the example by taking one yourself. Funny enough, I’ve found that these breaks away from the office provide the mental break I need to inadvertently come up with a breakthrough idea.
Let’s not forget the best present…
Well, one thing that should never be forgotten is the need to genuinely, honestly and humbly thank your staff for their work throughout the year. Getting wrapped up with festive excitement can often lead to business leaders forgetting the importance of taking the time to individually say thank you to every member of the team.
Show your appreciation for your team openly and often, and you’ll build a team that feels valued for their work and expertise and that will be roaring to deliver a winning holiday season.
Fred Hsu is CEO of Manage.
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