I came across a great blog post by Jathan Janove called, "5 Powerful Leadership Lessons from Santa Claus" that I thought was worth sharing, particularly for those who are celebrating Christmas today. The post begins with a question, "Can Santa Claus be the most underrated leader in history?" When we think about great leaders throughout history, Santa Claus probably doesn't come up for discussion. However, Janove makes a great argument and suggests, "Santa Claus is a highly charismatic leader, respected by many, and manages a team of top performers of elves and reindeers. He provides excellent customer service and always gets the job done year after year on a strict schedule — which is everything to thrive for as a leader."
Here are some of the things that make Santa Claus (and anyone else, for that matter) an outstanding leader:
1. He has a clear vision.
Having a clear vision of what they want to accomplish as a leader is one of the most important, and one of the most frequently talked about, aspects of leadership. Santa wants to share hope, joy, and cheer. Beyond having a clear vision though, great leaders are able to communicate their vision and inspire others to follow that vision to success. No matter what is happening around the world, Santa Claus inspires millions of people around the world with the spirit of Christmas.
2. He sets clear boundaries and expectations.
I often talk about the High Reliability Organization concept of "Deference to Expertise". Rather than giving their teams a detailed set of instructions or "playbook" that covers every possible scenario, great leaders set clear boundaries or "guardrails" along with their expectations of what the teams should try to achieve. While Santa Claus is a happy, jolly elf, he also has certain expectations for what is acceptable behavior for all the children around the world. He expects people to make good choices and rewards them for doing so. However, I don't think that I have ever seen a list of what Santa Claus considers to be behaviors that will place you on his "Naughty List" versus his "Nice List". Instead, he provides a framework of what is good behavior versus what constitutes bad behavior, then he leaves it to the children to behave properly.
3. He builds a solid, high-performing team.
I can't think of a more efficiently run organization than Santa's Toy Shop at the North Pole. Just imagine what they accomplish - delivery of toys to all of the boys and girls around the world on Christmas Eve night! Santa knows that he can't accomplish this by himself, even with Mrs. Claus helping. He built a team of expert elves to make the toys, wrap the toys, and then help him deliver the toys. Santa is a great leader, but he knows that behind every great leader is a great follower.
4. He is caring and responsive.
Every December, children all around the world write Santa a letter telling him how good they've been over the last several months. They also ask Santa to bring them toys on Christmas morning. Santa reads each and every letter, and he "makes his list and checks it twice" to make sure that the children were good that year. Great leaders are great listeners. They lead with kindness and empathy. And they take care of their teams.
5. He embraces those who are different.
I don't know about you, but I've never been able to tell Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen apart from one another. But I definitely can tell which reindeer is Rudolph! Santa knew that he needed a diverse team to help pull his sleigh on Christmas Eve night. He knew that each one of the members of his team had their own role to play, even Rudolph and his red nose. Santa gave Rudolph a chance, even though he was different from "all of the other reindeer" who "used to laugh and call him names." And did Rudolph ever deliver! Great leaders recognize that there is strength in diversity, and they embrace those who are different than the rest. They help each member of the team play to his or her strengths so that the organization achieves its goals.
For all of these reasons and more, Santa Claus is a great leader! And I heard him exclaim 'ere he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!"
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