SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 170,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each Tuesday in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: Do you expect your people to come back rested and ready to go after the holidays?
- They’re going to be hard-charging as soon as they come back: 21.56%
- They’ll be about the same as before holiday break: 44.93%
- They’ll be suffering from post-holiday doldrums and exhaustion: 33.51%
Get them excited. Many of you have team members who will need a boost when they get back from the holidays. Your task as a leader is to first ensure you’re excited about the new year ahead, then to figure out how to get folks out of the dumps quickly so they can start being productive. Try giving them new challenges, new and exciting projects or setting goals for them that advance their interests and their careers. If there’s something clearly in it for them, it can help snap them out of that post-holiday fog.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”