Focus on your core values to have a better Christmas party, says Martin Mulcare.
As 2013 rapidly comes to an end, many of you may be thinking about how your business might celebrate the end of the calendar year – or the beginning of a new one. I am fascinated by the wide range of year-end celebrations; and I am equally concerned that too many businesses don’t think enough about how to celebrate.
This is a critical opportunity to revisit the core values of your business and ensure that the style of your celebration is not only consistent with your values but actually enhances them.
I hope that this month’s article encourages you to reflect on the core values of your business, even if it is too late to alter your 2013 Christmas party plans. The formula is really simple: Identify the relevant core value(s) and then design the celebration to align with that. Here are five real examples, based on five real-life core values.
1 Excellence
A key element of the Christmas party is to reward great individual achievements. The awards ceremony is informal, but it is serious, and only a limited number of deserving people are acknowledged.
2 Client focus
Important clients are invited to all of the firm’s major celebrations. New employees really get the message when clients are invited as well as staff. (And it’s interesting how this affects the behaviour at the party.)
3 Fun and creativity
A key element of the celebrations is to play games. The games have to be fun and they have to be designed, initiated and conducted by members of the team. I hope it is obvious that
the games are also respectful of every team member.
4 Balance
Partners of team members are invited to the firm’s key celebrations. The leaders of the business believe that work already draws each member of the team away from their partner for long enough, so that absence should not be extended any further.
5 Appreciation
A key element of his Christmas function is to give everyone a small present. The value of the gift may reflect the financial performance of the business, but that’s not the issue. What is significant is that everyone receives the same present, irrespective of their rank
or individual performance.
Now if you are thinking “that wouldn’t work here”, then congratulations – that’s exactly the point. These five approaches are only valid (and valuable) if the value is core to your business. And consider the alternative. What does it say about the business culture if a Christmas party encourages over-indulgence, insensitive “Kris Kringle” gifts and risqué jokes? Poor choices can damage the culture of your business.
These are the best of times to reflect on the core values of your business and to deliberately design your celebrations to leverage those values
