he is making a list
He checked twice
He will find out who is naughty and who is nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you sleep
He knows when you wake up
He knows whether you are a good person or a bad person
So, for God’s sake, be a good person
——Lyrics to “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
It’s that time of year when kids of all ages find out if they’ve made Santa’s naughty list or nice list. It’s like the difference between receiving a new Xbox and a lump of coal. Tough but fair. This is a lesson we can all learn from Santa Claus when it comes to developing our own New Year’s strategies. If a project, task, or person is underperforming, stop providing them with the same resources as high-performing people. Practice the Santa Claus Strategy.
The reality for companies in many mature industries is that the pool of resources they compete for is often available to every player. Therefore, competitive advantage belongs to those who can allocate resources differently from their competitors to provide superior value to their customers. However, in terms of resource allocation, research shows that 1/3 of companies allocate 99% of their resources to the same areas every year. Think about your organization: What percentage of your resources (time, talent, budget) will be allocated differently to different areas next year?
GM has recovered from bankruptcy under Chief Executive Mary Barra. When she took the reins, she said: “We are here to win. We can’t win by serving everyone everywhere. That’s not the right strategy. Evenly distributing resources across the business and customer base will make it difficult Easy because it means saying yes to everyone. Even more difficult and valuable is the ability to say no. GM President Dan Ammann echoed Barra’s comments and expanded on them, saying: “Where we decide to commit resources, we want to win. In other cases, we find ways to free up resources or exit.”
One of the techniques I use to “free up resources” when working with executive leadership teams is to proactively disengage. Managers often resort to passive disengagement, allowing unproductive projects, activities, or customers to continue to receive resources. Even a few hours a week of people devoting their time or attention to unproductive areas can add up to hundreds or thousands of hours a year for a company, throwing your team dramatically off track, like in a storm Santa’s sleigh is the same, without the help of Rudolph’s glowing red nose.
In fact, 80% of managers say their senior leaders fail to terminate unsuccessful initiatives quickly enough. There’s nothing more frustrating than someone investing time into a project that they know won’t add value to the business. Put projects on your naughty list and actively free up those resources and allocate them to more productive places. Has your team evaluated key initiatives over the past year to determine how they performed, why they did so, and your key lessons learned?
As the song tells us, Santa Claus doesn’t bring toys for children who behave badly. So why do we continue to provide resources to people or projects that simply don’t make a difference? Great leaders are very clear with their teams about the areas, tasks, and customers that will not receive resources. A disciplined team that actively frees up resources throughout the year and reallocates them to more productive areas and customers will outperform those that lack this discipline. Do you and your team have this kind of discipline?
Santa Claus is a jolly fellow, but don’t let his bright smile and rosy cheeks fool you: if you don’t do well, you don’t get what you want – you get what you deserve.
