It’s that exciting week before Christmas when kids cram for their big performance review. Where will the big guy watching from the North Pole mark them on the naughty-nice scale? Will it be enough to get them into the next gift bracket?

In the hustle and bustle of your own cramming, busyness, traveling, and shopping take a time out to contemplate the leadership lessons we can learn from Santa – but make sure you pull over or get out of the mall crowd’s path!

We Create Our Own Reality
Life is an optical illusion. Happiness is a choice. 90 percent of what we worry about never happens. How much more incredible is flying reindeer than wearing crap glasses, looking for all that’s wrong, and worrying ourselves sick?

Being Nice Has It’s Rewards
Optimism, hope, and building on strengths means we enjoy life much more than the poor Grinch who’s making himself and everyone else miserable. We tend to get back what we give. Leadership research on Emotional Intelligence, team spirit, and high-performance cultures shows the payoffs of treating people well.

Leadership Can Come From Unlikely Places
Leadership is action, not a position. Rudolph saved the day because Santa was flexible and open to leadership emerging from unconventional places during the foggy crisis. He built a highly engaged team with a strong sense of commitment to each other and their mission.

Setting Priorities and Managing Processes
You think you’re overwhelmed! How about the logistics of delivering toys to all the world’s kids in 24 hours? The Big Guy and his team spend a large percentage of their year planning and preparing for the big day.

Stay Nourished and Get Help along the Way
Santa frequently stops for milk and cookies for himself and carrots for the reindeer. Although he might be better off with fewer cookies and more carrots, he does take the pause that refreshes and makes sure his team is well fed too.

Let’s learn from Santa’s elf-help manual and take some time during the holidays to reflect on what’s really important before we rush headlong into the New Year.

Thriving in Turbulent Times Webcast: No Charge Downloads/Archive and In-House Options

My December 3 Thriving in Turbulent Times webcast is now available as a free podcast download from ITunes. Click here to access it.

If you and others in your team/organization enjoyed my December 3 webcast, I can customize a Thriving in Turbulent Times webcast for your organization. Click here for an outline of the customized options or to view/review the archived webcast.

Interview on Key Concepts behind Growing @ the Speed of Change Now Available

I had a wide ranging interview with Bob McLean, a 52 year icon of the broadcasting business (including years at CBC,) who thoroughly dug into Growing @ the Speed of Change. I knew I was in for a really engaging and in-depth interview when I arrived at the radio station to meet Bob and saw that his copy of my book was worn, dog-eared, and full of notes. I told him that nothing warms an author’s heart more than seeing his book with those signs of heavy usage. Click here for an outline of what we covered and to listen to the interview.