Does your business have a Christmas culture?

Most CEOs I’ve spoken to can relate to this moment: it’s halfway through the company Christmas party and everyone is feeling merry. Before you know it, you find yourself cornered by one of your team and they proceed to unload everything they think is wrong with your business.

At Anthropy 2023, during one of our CEO sessions I asked the thirty CEOs present to raise their hand if they had ever experienced a moment like this – pretty much all the hands went up immediately.

This is what we now call a ‘Christmas culture’ at Brandpie.

A Christmas culture is when your people only feel bold enough to speak up when they’ve the added fuel on board from the office party or company off-site. When I first became a CEO, I was on the receiving end of a few of these and it always spoiled my evening.

If you recognize this and you think you may have a Christmas culture, it might indicate that you have a wider problem in your business. So, ask yourself as a leader: Have you got a culture that allows people talk openly to you and your leadership team throughout the year? Are you all approachable?

If not, then how do you create an environment where your staff feel comfortable to speak up year-round and avoid the pain that comes with having a Christmas culture?

Here are 4 practical things you can do:

1. Listen more than you talk

Are you an organization that does more telling, rather than listening?

Employee engagement levels have remained at a constant 30% in the last few years. This highlights that a traditional approach to culture, which tends to be very top-down led, isn’t working.

Culture needs to evolve and innovate as much as your products and services do. A big part of this is listening to your employees and understanding where their pain points are. For it to be properly embraced, culture must be co-created and experienced with people on the ground.

By involving your people in the process, you’re also showing them that you trust them and their ideas.

A key thing I do at Brandpie is trust my team and let them find out for themselves what works and what doesn’t. The more you listen, let them learn and trust your people, the more inspired and engaged they will be.

We have seen time and again that when employees feel heard, they tend to be happier, and this boosts engagement and productivity.

2. Take action

As much as listening is important, so is taking action. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it?

If your employees are expressing dissatisfaction with areas of your business, it’s crucial to show them that you heard them and are taking steps to improve. If you don’t plan to take action because the timing isn’t right, then tell them.

One of the cultural challenges organizations face these days is that there can be a lot of listening, but not much action. It can feel a bit like being in the government! Once you identify employees’ challenges, it’s important to act fast and make improvements gradually.

Transparency must go both ways. For staff to be transparent with you, you also must be transparent with them about the actions you’re taking to improve the business and what is on the agenda to be fixed at a later time – so your NOT-to-do list is almost as important as your to-do one.

3. Build a safe environment

We are living in extremely turbulent, rapidly-changing times, which are bound to take a toll on people’s mental health. Today, employees are facing complex work issues, such as burnout, blurred lines between home and work, and cognitive overload.

And let’s not forget that just like in life, employees also bring baggage from past roles into a new company. Ensuring that employees feel comfortable and that they they’re in a safe environment is paramount.

Business must build psychological safety so employees feel safe speaking up. Psychological safety is a term that dates back to the 60s refers to the willingness of an individual to speak up at work. It’s a proven lever for performance in high-stake team environments.

When employees feel like they can speak freely about concerns without jeopardising their job, they will be more engaged and perform better in team environments – this is psychological safety.

To assess whether your business provides psychological safety, share these as questions and ask your team to rate them, on a scale of 1–4:

1. If you make a mistake in this organization, it is often held against you.
2. Members of this organization can bring up problems and tough issues.
3. People in this organization sometimes reject others for being different.
4. It is safe to take a risk in this organization.
5. It is difficult to ask other members of this organization for help.
6. No one in this organization would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.
7. Working with members of this organization, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.

4. Create a ‘speak-up’ culture

If you can create an environment inside your company where everybody who comes to work is excited, motivated, and inspired to do their best, then you're going to get higher levels of engagement and effort. It is by no means an easy feat – people work for years to build cultures where people are motivated and inspired.

But if you’re helping your company and your people grow and progress, all of those things will build a culture that gets you that discretionary effort. And that's what you're really looking for.

There is a clear correlation and plenty of studies that show the more engaged your workforce, the more profitable you're likely to be. And you will create greater value, more jobs, and a much happier workforce. Having a ‘speak up’ culture is a big part of this.

In summary:

These are great principles to embrace, but they don’t guarantee you won’t get any surprise one-to-ones during the next office party. But this time hopefully they’ll be much more positive – or at the very least, you’ll be armed to respond better and hey, you may not even need to leave your next Christmas party early! You might even enjoy it – like I do now.