125. How do I keep my employees engaged during the holidays?

Transcript – Episode 125: How do I keep my employees engaged during the holidays?

Joe: Keeping employees engaged during the holidays requires us to do more of what we should be doing all year long.

[Music]

Joe: Welcome to the Boss Better Now podcast sponsored by Boss Hero School where we teach leaders and business owners how to activate employee commitment in today’s everchanging workplace. Happy Thanksgiving if you’re here in the United States. It’s that time of year when we enter the holiday corridor and it’s a time of year for a lot of people that is special, but it’s also one of the most stressful times of year. We know that at this time of year, people tend to feel stressed about money. They’re stressed about their schedules, right? We’re running around for things uh with family, with shopping. Often times, if you’ve got kids, there’s school plays or concerts. There’s a lot going on. It can also be a taxing time for people personally if you’re dealing with things like loneliness or grief or loss. And we see that difficulty showing up both in the people who work for us and the customers that we encounter in the work that we do. And what we know about the holiday season is that if you want to keep your employees engaged, if you want them to keep showing up with an emotional and psychological buy into their work, if you want them to show up as the best version of themselves and care and try and give it all they’ve got at work during the holiday season, then as leaders, we need to be doubling down on the things that we should be doing all year long that drive engagement. Things like purpose and recognition and ongoing leadership support. Let’s talk a little bit about purpose. Some of the earliest jobs that I had in my career were in food service and in retail. Yes, I worked both in a restaurant and a shopping mall during the holiday season, which by the way is something that everybody should have to do. It gives you a deeper appreciation for people who do that kind of work. And one of the things that I learned early on is that during the holidays, most of the people you encounter are either really nice or really not. And the other thing that I learned is that when you encounter those folks who are really not, it can be really easy for their difficulty, their nature to infect our attitude as employees. It’s easy to become frustrated by people. It’s easy to become cynical or angry or dismiss people who are having a bad day. The reality is that the employees on your team will encounter difficult people during the holiday season. And so, one of the things that we have to periodically do as leaders is change the story that they tell themselves about what’s going on with those folks so that it doesn’t infect and it doesn’t create cynicism and you do get a more engaged performance from that employee in their interaction with that customer. So how do you change the story? Well, I would argue that you create line of sight between what’s happening with that person and maybe some compassion you can create for them among the thinking that your employees have about why their behavior is taking place. I remember once a number of years ago when I was in a shopping mall during the holiday season watching an employee or watching a customer just light up uh a woman working at the cash register and this woman stormed off and uh the person behind the cash register you could tell was really affected by it. And I just said to the woman cause I was next in line, “Hey, I’m really sorry that happened to you, but I hope you know that probably had nothing to do with you, right?” And she kind of looked at me for a minute and I said, “I actually feel really bad for her. I wonder what’s going on with her uh that would be so bad that it would lead her to show up in that way and treat a stranger like that.” And instantly her whole demeanor changed. We have to create line of sight sometimes between the ways in which people are showing up in the world and give our employees some permission to forgive it, right? to say, you know what, that person’s having a bad day. It has nothing to do with you, but when you interact with them, that’s your opportunity to be a bright light for that person on that day. In other words, as a leader, I want you to give your employees capes. I want you to turn them into the hero of the story and remind them what a stressful and difficult time it is for folks. Remind them that the customers they see may be stressed out about money or dealing with a loss or loneliness. That doesn’t excuse bad behavior that’s directed at your employees, but when you create that narrative, you can help your employees process it better, which influences engagement. And when you do have folks on your team who are on the receiving end of a particularly tough customer, sometimes it’s just the best move to walk up alongside of that employee and say, “Hey, listen. That shouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry you had to deal with that. If you’d like to take a break, if you need to take a walk, by all means, feel free to do that.” Uh, and you know, let me cover for you for a few minutes. That is an act of compassion. The other thing that we need to do as leaders during this time of year, and it’s something that we should be doing all year long, but we especially want to reach for it during the holiday season, is by putting people over position. First of all, we need to be continuing to check in one-on-one with our employees and trying to keep our finger on the pulse of what’s going on with them and making explicit our caring for them and everything that they’ve got going on in their lives. So, take a minute in your conversations with your folks to ask people, so what’s the holiday season like for you as we go into this time of year? Is it stressful? Is it busy? Are you excited? Do you look forward to it? Uh what vice for your time and attention? You know, you may hear from employees who have uh kids who are involved in a lot of activities or maybe they’re stressed out about some travel coming up and you know, I’ve got to go meet mom’s new boyfriend and he’s a real piece of work. You never know what you’ll get from people in these conversations, but it demonstrates that you care about them and you will get some intel that will allow you to show up as a better leader for that person during this busy time of year. The other way in which we continue to put people over position is we just ratchet up our gratitude. It is a season of thanksgiving. And so, are you giving thanks? Are you making your appreciation explicit? Are you taking the time to thank people for just navigating the choppy waters that show up sometimes during the holiday season? Take a few minutes to tell people individually and your teams collectively, hey, I know it’s a busy time of year. Thank you all so much for just continuing to push through. Thank you for being here. Thank you for dealing with all that that we’ve got going on here. Uh thank you for continuing to, you know, show up as the best version of yourself when you can uh amid everything you’ve got going on personally. Just expressing gratitude influences engagement. It leads people to feel seen. It leads people to feel appreciated. Don’t assume that they know that you’re grateful. Make it explicit. And along the way, also make some time for fun. This is a stressful time of year, so think about some ways you can sprinkle in a couple of laughs or smiles. Bring cookies to work one day. Do a silly holiday brain teaser for 10 minutes at the head of a team meeting. Plan a white elephant gift exchange. Try to choose fun that isn’t too taxing for your team or doesn’t require them to spend money or part with a bunch of time but find some ways to sprinkle in some of those laughs and smiles and you’ll find that goes a long way to engagement as well. Finally, today friends don’t underestimate the importance of belonging on engagement. When I wrote my book Employalty I talked a lot about belonging. Belonging is the number three reason that people will leave a job. People will actually use the language I didn’t feel like I belonged. And one of the things to remember during the holiday season is that not everyone celebrates the same holidays or celebrates in the same ways. And if we plan holiday celebrations or if the language that we use during the holiday season is one-dimensional, if it only acknowledges the most u common or popular or majority holidays and it doesn’t use language that encompasses a variety of different ways to celebrate, people who don’t celebrate the most frequently cited holidays will feel like an outsider. And so, one of the things that I want to challenge you to do is not to assume that you know or understand all the ways in which the members of your teams celebrate. Don’t assume that you knew you know what their religion is. Don’t assume that you know what their cultural heritage is or the ways in which they choose to celebrate observances during this time of year. In fact, you should go the other way. You should assume that you have someone on your team who does not celebrate the same way as everyone else. You should assume that you have someone on your team who has not shared with you the religious observances that they have or that they uh spend time on during the holiday season. And don’t take that step of asking your team, hey, if you uh celebrate any holidays or religious observances that are outside the mainstream, please tell me so I can make sure you feel included. That actually is an act of exclusion. and it will lead people to not feel like they belong because you are forcing them to out themselves. Instead, just plan events and use language that encompasses everyone. Refer to the holidays, refer to celebrations. Don’t get overly specific about which ones you’re talking about. And no, this is not being too PC. This is actually an act that is deeply respectful of the unique human beings who work for you. And when you show up in that way, when you care deeply about each individual person on your team, that’s where engagement comes from. Now, I would love to hear from you. What are your thoughts? What are the success stories you’ve had about keeping your team engaged during the holiday season? Let me know in the comments box below here on YouTube or you can email me at bossbetternow@gmail.com. That’s also the best way for you to share questions you’d love to see me tackle on a future episode of the podcast. Tell me a little bit about what you’re struggling with. Ask a question related to leadership or workplace culture or employee engagement or retention or staffing. And who knows, we may tackle it in a future episode of Boss Better Now. Thanks for being here. See you next time.

Joe: Hey friends, did you know that I have been publishing my Boss Better email newsletter for more than 10 years? That’s right. If you want to keep in touch with me and keep your finger on the pulse of all things employee engagement and retention, workplace culture and leadership, then go to bossbetternow.com to subscribe.

[Music]