Strategies for Leading with Clarity During the Holiday Season

Summer brings a whirlwind of expectations: fun adventures, family gatherings, taking time off work, and catching up on hobbies. The demands may vary, but a common question prevails—how will you manage it all??

As a leader, ensuring a successful summer while fulfilling your leadership responsibilities requires strategic thinking. Let’s dive into three practical strategies: A B C??

?? Accept,??

?? Build Boundaries,??

?? Communicate.?

1: Accept: Embrace Your Limits?

Accepting that you can't do it all is crucial, though challenging. Striving to do everything may seem feasible, but it often comes at a high cost. Here’s how to manage:?

Prioritise Ruthlessly: Focus on activities that yield the greatest impact. The 80/20 rule is your ally—80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.?

Avoid the Small Stuff: Don’t get bogged down in minor details. Assess the return on your time investment and avoid micromanaging.?

Shape Stakeholder Expectations: Proactively communicate with stakeholders to set realistic priorities. Chances are, they’ll appreciate your initiative.?

Get the work you enjoy done first – Working within your zone of creative tension is important. Pull back too much and you’ll feel anxious. Take on too much and you’ll feel anxious. Just like Goldilocks, find that bowl of porridge that’s just right. A quick way of doing this is to look at what’s on and start your day with what gives you energy. It’s the secret sauce to creating momentum for YOU.?

2: Build Boundaries: Protect Your Effectiveness?

Prioritise what will have the greatest impact and work out what can wait.?

Once you’ve identified your priorities, it’s essential to maintain boundaries. This ensures your productivity and well-being. A way of owning your space and being transparent with yourself and others.?

When you’ve accepted you cannot do it all – this is when the fun begins.??

Leadership Effectiveness is about establishing boundaries that achieve success without burning out and wasting time. It’s about knowing your strengths, owning your limitations (work, family, summertime dynamics) and being laser sharp in your decision making.?

?? Set Clear Limits: Define what you will and won’t do and stick to it. Boundaries safeguard your effectiveness and set clear expectations for your team.?

?? Focus on High-Impact Tasks: Concentrate on what truly matters and delegate or postpone less critical tasks. Your team will respect your clarity and follow your lead.?

?? Establish Realistic Goals: Reevaluate your goals and timelines to ensure they’re achievable within the summer constraints.?

?? Communicate with Courage: Foster Understanding?

Reestablish realistic goals and build timelines that will set you up for summertime success. The key is to work out at what pace, be clear on what you can do and agree what moves to the long list (post holiday season).?

3: Communicate with Courage:??

Effective communication is vital for leadership success, especially during the hectic holiday months. We all know how important communication is and it might surprise you that effective communication shows up as a development point in over 70% of the leadership assessments that I deliver. What I can tell you is that multi-mode communication is challenging. Why??

YOU must adapt your message several times to ensure it's understood and acted on – this skill takes time to perfect and can feel frustrating getting there.?

?? Align Goals with Your Team: Ensure that your team’s priorities align with yours. Clear communication prevents misunderstandings and fosters collaboration.?

?? Self-Reflection: Regularly check in with yourself. Align your actions with your commitments and manage internal conflicts between your desires and responsibilities.?

Communicate with yourself??

Yes, that’s right, have a chat with yourself. It’s all well and good facing off what your holiday time commitments are with others but unless YOU are truly on board the whole season will become an internal battle between your desire to do it differently and your intrinsic arousal to do more.?

Overall leading takes courage and during the holiday season it’s about being honest with what’s possible – to yourself and others.?

?? For further guidance on setting effective boundaries this holiday season, download my complimentary PDF, "5 Ways to Set More Effective Boundaries."?from the tools section of my website.

? NewlandRock specialises in leadership effectiveness solutions focused on coaching, executive assessment & wellbeing, empowering leaders to enhance their effectiveness and impact.