The Impact of Holiday Cheer Throughout the Year

• December 4, 2019
• Steve Greenblatt

The holiday season invites positive thoughts of kindness, care, and consideration no matter your beliefs or background. It is a time for reflection and pause to appreciate those who are important in our lives. Starting with Thanksgiving and lasting until the new year, more than any other season attitudes are uplifted and moods are lightened with a greater sense of thankfulness, appreciation, and harmony.

While it is the norm for the business year to be cluttered with competition, stress, conflict, and challenges, the holiday season reminds us of how cheer and harmony among people can have a positive impact on organizations and businesses.

How can the AV industry benefit from the influence of the holiday season?

Rather than focusing soley on numbers including strictly managing budgets, enforcing requirements, and winning at the potential cost of others, delivering a positive customer experience (CX) should be the goal of a successful project. By working together and focusing on cooperation between members of a project team (from both the service provider and client), the result is a more considerate approach with a higher degree of attention to detail, greater quality, and ultimately increased profit and valued relationships. Through a combination of trust, mutual respect, and teamwork between service providers, sub-contractors, and clients the collective sum will be greater than the individual parts and all involved will benefit.

In business, including anyone involved in a project – integrators, consultants, manufacturers, service providers, and technology managers or end user clients – it is all too often that one party profits at an other’s expense. For example, service providers can profit by charging more than the value they provide, managing scope in their favor, or failing to complete the project requirements or meet client expectations. From the other side, clients can profit by shopping for a lower price that is incongruent with their needs, leaving project details too loose or open to interpretation, or not being fully transparent about their situation and expectations. In the end, none of these situations result in the desired outcome and many times lead to conflict, dissatisfaction, loss of confidence as well as monetary impact on both sides. If all parties had the mindset of cooperation and consideration, the commitment to achieving great results and satisfaction would be fairly balanced and shared by all involved. The extra care, mutual respect, and focus on a common, achievable goal for all to attain would yield collective, sustainable success.

Doing the right thing is more important than just getting the job done.

Most people are good natured and want to be recognized for doing the right thing. While it is important to be conscious of meeting deadlines, managing scope, and keeping an eye on finances, going the extra mile and helping to satisfy a need and support a client will have greater long term benefit that playing for the short term win.

The AV industry is built upon relationships, as is evident by the growing online community and long lasting friendships that have been fostered throughout the years. While everyone wants to be successful and competition will always exist, it is those who take the time to demonstrate care and consideration for each other that will be recognized and find themselves positioned well for the future. It is said that luck is the intersection of hard work and opportunity. Instead, let’s consider opportunity as the intersection of care and consistency.

Here are some thoughts to consider that demonstrate the warm sentiment of the holiday season in business that can be useful throughout the entire year. See what impact they make for your role or organization and share them with others so everyone can benefit.

• Help someone through a tough situation and your efforts will likely be remembered for a long time to come. Relationships are built by being able to rely on each other, and the value of true relationships is greatest when they are needed most.
• Take the time to acknowledge and praise kindness, consideration, hard work, and positive results. This goes for co-workers, bosses, clients, and contractors. Positive reinforcement and recognition are always appreciated and will likely result in repeat actions.
• Take time to coach, train, and share information with those who can benefit from your knowledge or experience. Rather than considering knowledge as power, seek to help others and identify the benefit that can be gained by raising the skills and effectiveness of those around you. Greater productivity, increased quality, and higher efficiency are just a few of the tangible benefits. The softer, less measurable gains are greater respect, stronger relationships, and appreciation.
• Reward loyalty, commitment, and support from those who have either contributed to past success or gone the extra mile. From the perspective of either side of a client/service provider relationship, the value of allegiance and dedication should not be taken for granted. Instead, it should be recognized, appreciated, and reinforced as a priority. Investment in relationships rather than focusing on transactions is what builds equity and leads to long term success.
• Put yourself in other peoples’ shoes when assessing situations, making decisions, or taking actions. It is very easy to get caught up approaching things one-sided without the benefit of considering others’ perspectives. By taking the time to be thoughtful, listening, and being considerate of others before casting judgement a greater degree of understanding, appreciation, and respect can be achieved resulting in more productive outcomes. This goes for business or personal situations as well as casual interactions.

The holiday season reminds us that a warm sentiment, positive thought, and appreciation for others will yield a higher degree of happiness and camaraderie. While it is great to savor these feelings during a special time of year, committing to implement them in business and personal relationships on a regular basis can have a lasting impact on our daily lives, individual growth, and business success.