December - Where Work Goes to Die

From Thanksgiving until the Monday after January 1^st, work is sparse. People stock pile vacation so they can be off the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day and that basically lops off close to 25% efficiency for the month. Throw in those wacky Christmas Parties, the general secret Santa shopping trips (hey it’s for work) and you have a month that is pretty much inconvenienced by the work that is due in December. Oh sure budgets get finished and year end board meetings get accomplished, but all of that is just some misdirection for what has become a 35 day cruise ship.

Some of the great successful athletes and business leaders in our history have always talked about when the competition was resting they were working. That is the advantage the great ones have, they will out work you! So what would happen if we flipped the pattern of December? I am not trying to be Scrooge, I am merely asking for us to do what we are paid to do…..WORK.

I propose to make work different this December. Doing this might give you a jump start on the New Year. Instead of shopping online at your desk, try this!

1.       Get out of the office and just plan. Take your team and spend some time talking about 2012. Put away the phone, the email, and no internet. Just bring some newsprint and sharpies. The point of this is to make yourself and your team better in 2012. While everyone else is looking back on 2011 – you look forward! Think, Plan, Play and create Magic!

2.       Work on your staff evaluations for 2011. Spend some time making this the most beneficial interaction you have ever had with your team. Look at their past reviews. Get guidance from your mentors on how to best motivate people. Work on a development plan that you will partner with them in the execution. Get out of the cycle of that annual review where it’s all about “that’s good and that’s bad and here’s your merit increase. Thank you for being a loyal employee at Dunder Mifflin.” Make them walk out of the review with amazement and with that loyal feeling that you really care about their development. 

3.       Write love notes. I say that jokingly but I really mean just hand write some notes. I think I read where only 7% of the mail today is personal. The rest is junk mail and bills. Take the time to write personal notes to the people who are most important to your business. It doesn’t have to be a novel, it just needs to be a line or two where people are thanked, appreciated and even informed.

It is obvious that the work world slows down in December because it’s tradition. You can slow down too or you can take advantage of this time and make yourself, your team and your business just a little bit better for 2012! Merry Christmas and I will be out of the office from Dec 23^rd through January 2^nd.