Ever notice that during the holiday season, some people tend to lose focus at work? Their thoughts are on the cold weather, holiday shopping, holiday cooking, etc. but not always 100 percent focused on business — your business — and that can be a killer, especially for businesses that make most their money during the holiday season. If you’re from the Northeastern United States like I am, I get it – the days are getting shorter (does it really have to be dark by 5 p.m.?!) and the nights are getting colder. But, this is not the time to sit back, write a shopping list, or daydream about holidays during work hours – it’s GO time. People are shopping and they have money to spend. If your employees are not exceeding their goals, it’s up to you to guide them.
Here are some things you can implement in order to keep your employees engaged and motivated into the new year and beyond.
1. Only positive vibes allowed. Huffington Post writer James Clear about Barbara Fredrickson, a professor of psychology who at the time was a positive psychology researcher at the University of North Carolina. In a study, she found that positive emotions broaden one’s sense of possibility and open their mind up to more options. Her study was not the first or the last to show that positivity improves performance.
Throughout my holistic health studies, I’ve found that the easiest way to be more positive is to express “an attitude of gratitude” and canceling out negativities with the word “cancel” helps.
Anytime you hear yourself using ‘should’ for example, quickly repeat over and over ‘cancel, cancel, cancel.’ Don’t let your negative thinking get the best of you; replace the negative with a ‘cancel’ and encourage your employees to do the same. There’s no room for negativity in the workplace.
2. Extra patience with customers is a must.
Chances are, your customers are just as stressed out as you are around the holidays are over-extending themselves. A customer who may come off as rude may have had an exceptionally bad day and just so happened to cross your path while still feeling down – it’s nothing personal against you. You don’t know what your customers are going through. Make sure your employees stay patient and polite at all times.
3. Stay vigilant and be alert of cyber crimes.
Holiday season is prime time for cyber crimes since consumers are doing heavy shopping, especially online. According to the corporate security experts of EyeOnPASS, e-commerce sites, web, and mobile apps are extremely vulnerable to data breaches, set to be worth a staggering $2.4 trillion by 2019. There are several things you can do to help keep your company secure but first and foremost, your employees need to be vigilant and alert. This is the time when they will need to pay extra attention to suspicious emails and phones. In addition, they will need to keep their system software updated.
3. A little more vitamin C, a little less late nights.
Not to state the obvious, but when stress is high, not sleeping enough or eating correctly can only make it worse. Encourage your employees to take extra good care of themselves. It couldn’t hurt to offer some fresh fruit and vegetables at the office along with orange juice – in fact, doing so should give your employees a morale boost.
4. Pump, pump them up.
The people who work for your business can make or break it. With proper motivation, they could generate thousands or even millions of extra dollars for you, but sometimes they need to be pushed. Offer employee contests to motivate and incentive. Don’t forget to celebrate their successes with them, however small or large they are. When you celebrate good behavior, results will come. In addition to employee contests, you could celebrate by doing something as simple as giving them a big “good job” and applause in front of the team or throw them a $10 gift card to their favorite coffee joint.
Further reading: 5 Creative Strategies to Boost Employee Engagement
Image source: Pixabay