Craig T. Owens

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Christmas seems to be the one time of year when everyone loves to share their traditions, both in their families and in their organizations. As leaders we should embrace organizational traditions, and use them to show our team the culture of our organization. We also need to be aware that the personal traditions of our team members might make their lives a bit more hectic, and understanding and flexibility on our part will go a long way for them.

Books make great Christmas gifts! Pick up a copy of my and Greg’s new books to give to the leader in your life. Greg wrote Sage Advice and I wrote Shepherd Leadership.

• [0:22] Christmas has more traditions than probably any other holiday—both in our families and in our organizations. 
• [2:22] Organizational culture isn’t written down, so holiday traditions can help us convey the culture to our teammates.
• [3:28] I share one of my family Christmas traditions.
• [6:00] What does generosity have to do with traditions?
• [7:14] Greg shares one of his Christmas traditions with his family.
• [9:02] Traditions bring comfort in uncertain times, but we can still adapt them as some situations change.
• [12:25] Leaders need to be aware of the stress our teammates may feel during the holidays.
• [15:17] Leader should be especially aware of our staff members’ needs during this time of year.
• [18:00] Greg shares a mistake that his organization made that generated a lot of stress, and how they corrected it.
• [21:18] We both share some fun stores about Christmas.
• [24:23] Leader need to really leverage what Christmas really means.

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