Job reviews, performance appraisals, employee evaluations, and accountability monitoring have long been an important aspect of most professions, careers, and jobs. As a result, both personal and professional leadership are serious matters. There’s an almost endless number of scales, ranking models, rating systems, detailed rubrics, and evaluation plans for both quantifying and qualifying individual and organizational performance. Recently one leadership consulting firm thought it was time to look at Santa Claus and see how he’d fare. They used their ARC Model for this leadership and performance review.
The model drew on a great deal of both historical and contemporary research, individual and group characteristics, and experiential reviews. Their work included leadership analyses at the strategic and tactical levels. After years of work, they had isolated three critical leadership attributes—Accessibility, Reliability, and Commitment. Collectively these simple personal and group leadership attributes rendered a reliable framework for evaluating then successfully enhancing personal and organizational leadership. They were the three domains in their performance and leadership assessment model.
As part of their “Santa Claus Leadership and Performance Appraisal Study,” they gathered a wide range of input from an equally wide range of sources. They reviewed movies, books, songs, poems, newspaper articles, legends, myths, and any other source that might offer insights into how this guy has endured as well and as long as he has. They conducted more than 360 one-on-one contemporary interviews. They interviewed women and men, boys and girls. The youngest was 3 and the oldest was 103.
The 103 year old quoted the movie Miracle on 34th Street. When asked her age, with a broad smile she said, “I’m as old as my tongue and slightly older than my teeth!” A guy in his 70s shared that he had once ridden with Santa Claus during a pre-Christmas visit by the “Big Guy” to his neighborhood. The kids’ responses where the most fun and honest. At some point in their interviews there was always the questions, “How many more days until he comes?
When the research team completed their work, they prepared a final report. It was their performance and leadership review of Santa Claus, based on his accessibility, his reliability, and his commitment.
ACCESSIBILITY: We find Santa Claus to be exemplary. He’s never hard to find, he’s readily available, and he’s approachable. His model and his persona are so ingratiating, emulating him is fulfilling for those who choose to be part of his team; they want to be like him! He specializes in one-on-one attention, and when you’re with him, there’s no question he’s with you. He’s busy, but he always seems to have time.
He welcomes everyone. He encourages nice instead of naughty, but in the end he’s really not the overly judgmental type. Because he welcomes the help of others to fulfill his mission, year in and year out he reaches more and more people. And each year he does so with the same level of kindness, care, and compassion that are his empathetic hallmarks.
RELIABILITY: Father Christmas is nothing short of remarkable. If there’s a model of the phrase “character is destiny,” it’s him. You can count on him. Because he does a lot more listening than talking, relating to him is really easy. When his work is done each year, he moves on taking no bows, seeking no applause, and demanding no accolades. Since he neither brags nor complains about his age, he is timeless. As a bigger-than-life figure, he humbles himself to any and all who approach him. In this domain the team concluded that quite possibly the single most important characteristic that makes Santa Claus so reliable is that he seems to bring out the best in others. He not only serves, but at the same time he inspires.
COMMITMENT: This might be his strongest performance and leadership attribute. He works tirelessly all year. Although his particular focus is on one day, he and his team make an entire season brighter. He, his team, and those who believe in him, never lose sight of the real reason for the season. He’s a model of servant leadership in a season of hope, giving, and love. Saint Nicholas makes it clear that there is an abiding spirit to the season, an enduring and guiding focus on peace, hope, and charity. Throughout the ages he’s worked to personify that spirit with love and compassion. He also has an unshakable belief in something bigger than himself. He’s committed to that belief and its promise of hope.
IN CONCLUSION: Regardless of the name you use for him, Santa Claus provides a sound model of leadership and performance. We recommend, that it become more than a seasonal inspiration, but instead that it be a model for all seasons!
Discover more from M. R. McGough, LLC
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.