Holiday’s illicit emotions: good, bad, or indifferent. This range of heightened emotions can cause friction in the workplace. As leaders, it’s important to tap into your emotional intelligence – use your social competence to engage in social awareness and relationship management.
Social awareness is a skill that can be learned and practiced which allows you to recognize and understand the moods of other individuals and entire groups of people. Observing body language, facial expressions, postures, tone of voice, and even what is hidden beneath the surface, like deeper emotions and thoughts. To do this well, you’ll need to tap into your senses: not only your physical five senses but also your spiritual sense of intuition. As you notice your own emotions while observing others, it may help you notice and interpret cues other people send you.
The holiday season kicks off here in the USA with Halloween and builds with enthusiasm as we approach the recognized federal holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. While the USA refers to this time of year as the holiday season, many countries refer to this time of year as the festival season –to distinguish it from other time off work – since they refer to any vacation as a holiday.
I, personally, love the thought of a vacation referred to as a holiday. Holi – day: Holy day. The definition of a holiday, according to Google Dictionary, is “a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done.”
When I was working at the University, how staff celebrated and decorated was heavily influenced by the department leader. While some departments would go all out with the traditional American-style Christmas Holiday décor (Christmas trees, Santa Claus, Snowmen, and the Nativity Scene), other department leaders refused to allow the word “Christmas” to be used at all. They insisted on celebrating a winter theme – only permitting an evergreen tree or winter snowflakes, and snowmen for décor. They stated, “We don’t want to offend international students.” On the contrary, when I travel to another country, I look forward to observing their traditions. I wouldn’t want them to forgo their traditions for fear of offending me.
To avoid offending others, one school of thought was to create an inclusive international festivity theme where a Christmas Tree and Nativity Scene could be displayed, along with a Hanukkah, and Kwanza. Since America is considered the great melting pot, this would bring awareness to the campus of the variety of festivities around the globe.
2021 GLOBAL HOLIDAYS CALENDAR
- Halloween (Australia, Canada, U.K., U.S.) OCT 31
- Diwali (India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand) NOV 4
- Singles Day (China) NOV 11
- Thanksgiving (U.S.) NOV 25
- Black Friday (Canada, U.K., U.S.) NOV 26
- Cyber Monday (Canada, U.K., U.S.) NOV 29
- Hanukkah (Many countries) NOV 28-DEC 6
- Sinterklaas (Netherlands) DEC 6
- Christmas Day (Many countries) DEC 25
- Boxing Day (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, U.K.) DEC 26
- Kwanza (U.S., Many countries) DEC 26 – JAN 1
- New Year’s Eve (Many countries) DEC 31
Regardless of which holiday you celebrate, the common ground and overall theme during the festival season is respect, thankfulness, and love. As we move closer to the holiday festivities, I challenge you to consider your approach, and how you will respectfully contribute to acknowledge thankfulness and love to your team members and create a warm and welcoming workplace.
Remember, while most people are thoroughly excited about the holiday season and all the fun and social events that come with it, many people struggle with sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Become aware of the people on your team and what emotions they may be experiencing.
If someone is in the depths of grief, don’t pressure them to participate beyond their ability. Let them know they are free to leave an event if they aren’t comfortable. It’s okay for someone to say, “I’m not up for this right now.” Honor those requests and be sure team members honor their requests and don’t pressure them to ‘be happy.’
Leadership and team development involve relationship management, which takes time, effort, and know-how. It’s truly through developing the emotional intelligence skills of each team member that grants your team the ability to bond where each person’s needs are satisfied. Relationship management is part of emotional intelligence and taps into the other three components of self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness. Self-awareness skills aid you in noticing your feelings and judging if your needs are being satisfied. Your self-management skills express our feelings and act accordingly to benefit the connection with others. While, as stated above, self-awareness skills help you better understand the other person’s needs and feelings.
The bottom line is, enjoy the holidays. We are not meant to be alone – relationships are an essential and fulfilling part of life and the workplace. Remember, you are half of each relationship – which means you have half the responsibility of deepening each connection.
Candace Mae Gruber is the Founder and CEO of Candace Mae Training and Services – a Leadership & Strategic Business Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer, and Speaker. As an Executive Director and member of the President’s Advisory Council with The John Maxwell Team – Candace Mae is a person of value-adding value to others. Candace Mae is the mother of three grown children and lives in Valley Center, CA near her oldest daughter and three beautiful grandchildren.
To learn more about developing emotional intelligence for you or your team, schedule a free, 15-minute, exploratory strategy session at: https://candacemae.com/schedule-an-appointment/