It’s that time of year again. The lights are up, your inbox is flooded with holiday greetings, and you’re probably scrambling to figure out how to “thank” your team for surviving yet another chaotic year. Here’s the truth you might not want to hear: your team doesn’t want your half-baked attempts at making gratitude cookies again this year.
Save the fruit baskets and ugly sweater parties. Your employees don’t just need more “holiday cheer”—they need you to gift them the presence of a true leader. And if you’re not gifting them the four things they REALLY want from you this Holiday Season and throughout next year, you’re just a small-hearted Grinch who wraps up a lump of coal and tosses it under the tree.
Let’s get real: if you aren’t delivering the wonderful gifts of consistency, cohesiveness, coordination, and clarity, you are the Grinch who’s stealing their trust, their productivity, and probably their respect. So, what’s it going to be this year? Are you going to keep up with the same tired holiday traditions, or are you ready to hand out the only gifts that matter?
Consistency: The Gift That Keeps You Off Everyone’s Naughty List
First off, your team craves consistency. No one wants a leader who’s all over the place, constantly changing their tune depending on their mood, the stock price, or which leader in the company is breathing down their neck this week. Consistency is the bedrock of trust. It makes your employees feel like they can actually stand on solid ground.
Without it, you’re nothing more than an unpredictable mess—a walking, talking Holiday disaster waiting to happen. And don’t think for a second that your team doesn’t notice. They might smile and nod and even drink a second glass of wine at the Holiday Party, but inside, they’re expecting you to drop the ball again at New Year’s. They’ve seen it too many times.
Here’s a stat to hit home: 76% of employees say that consistency from leadership creates a sense of safety. (Gallup, 2022) Safety isn’t a perk—it’s a requirement. You can’t build trust without it. Stop being the wild card. No one needs a new surprise from you under the tree every day. What they need is reliability.
How to Deliver This Gift:
Set core values and stick to them. If your values change with every new trend, you’re not consistent—you’re confused.
Don’t waver. Be the rock your team can rely on. Lead with steady hands, not shaky nerves.
Align your leadership team. Consistency isn’t just about you; it’s about making sure everyone on your leadership team is singing from the same damn carol sheet.
Cohesiveness: Stop Creating Confusion and Calling it a Stocking Stuffer
If your team isn’t cohesive, you’re giving them the gift of confusion and even chaos. And guess what? No one asked for that. Imagine trying to pull a sleigh with reindeer who don’t even like each other—doesn’t work? The same goes for your leadership team. If you and your leaders aren’t sticking together, your team will follow your lead—straight into dysfunction.
Cohesiveness doesn’t mean groupthink. It means that you present a united front as a leadership team, not some fragmented mess that leaves your employees guessing who’s in charge today. A Harvard Business Review study found that teams with cohesive leadership saw a 15% increase in productivity and a 21% drop in turnover. Why? Because when leaders stick together, their teams follow suit.
How to Deliver This Gift:
Leave your fights in the boardroom. You’re creating fractures if you’re squabbling in front of your team. Fix it behind closed doors.
Be unified or be gone. If you can’t stand together as a leadership team, you’re not leading—you’re in everyone’s way.
Model what you want to see. If you want a cohesive team, show them how it’s done. Lead by example, or don’t bother leading at all.
Coordination: The Gift That Magically Turns Confusion into Consistency
Do you know what’s worse than getting socks as a Holiday gift? Getting zero coordination from leadership. When your team doesn’t know where the hell they’re going or why, it’s like throwing a pile of damaged and tangled lights in their lap and telling them to make the house sparkle.
Coordination brings all the parts together into something that makes sense. It’s not just about “keeping people busy”—it’s about making sure every action, goal, and strategy works in unison toward a common vision. You wouldn’t gift your child a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing, so why are you doing that to your team?
According to a McKinsey study, teams with high coordination outperform disjointed teams by 32%. Coordination equals results. No coordination? You should kiss your holiday bonuses goodbye under the mistletoe because nothing’s getting done.
How to Deliver This Gift:
Set clear goals. If people don’t know what they’re working toward, they’ll burn out before the New Year’s ball drops.
Communicate like your life depends on it because your job does. Keep everyone aligned, informed, and on track.
Create aligned processes, not predictable pandemonium. If your processes are more confusing than holiday shopping traffic, it’s time to fix them.
Clarity: Give the Gift of Sight This Holiday Season
Here’s a big one: Clarity is the ultimate gift. If your team doesn’t know what you expect, what the plan is, or where they stand, they’re navigating a blizzard with no sleigh. Lack of clarity is a leadership failure, and it’s one that costs you far more than you realize.
Confusion kills momentum. It destroys morale. You might think you’ve been clear but let me be honest: if your team is still guessing what you mean, you haven’t been clear. If they can’t see it when you say it, you’re in big trouble. A study from Project Oxygen shows that clear communication reduces project errors by 25% and increases on-time delivery by 30%. People move faster and more confidently when they know what they’re doing.
How to Deliver This Gift:
Stop being vague. No one wants to play “guess what the boss meant.” Spell it out—every time.
Speak plainly. The fancy corporate buzzwords aren’t making you sound smarter—they confuse everyone. Talk like a human being.
Set crystal-clear expectations. Your team needs to know what winning looks like. Tell them. Then tell them again.
Unwrap Real Leadership This Year
This Holiday Season, your employees don’t want another cookie-cutter “thank you” email or a forgettable gift card. They want the gifts that actually matter—the gifts that will change the way they feel about their work, their role, and yes, even you as a leader. Consistency, cohesiveness, coordination, and clarity—these are the gifts that make all the difference.
So, forget about the ugly sweater contests and the generic holiday swag. If you’re serious about being a leader worth following into 2025, you’ll deliver these four gifts with no excuses. Anything less, and you’re just stuffing coal into stockings and wondering why no one’s motivated.
Santa’s not coming to save your team—so you must. Step up, give them what they need, and maybe next year you’ll be the leader they all talk about around the holiday dinner table—for the right reasons.
