Set Up These Six Leadership Fundamentals for Fall and the Holiday Season
Setting store fundamentals in motion before the rush.
In retail, when we say “fall is in the air,” it means things are about to get busy. Even if you’re coming off a hectic back-to-school season, fall quickly shifts into prep for the holidays: Black Friday, the holiday season, and New Year’s Eve all stacked one after another.
Many businesses spend a lot of time putting hiring plans and seasonal programs in place. Freight flows heavier than at any other time of year, and it’s easy to fall behind. It takes all your planning and leadership skills to keep your teams aligned and keep everything on track. The best leaders aren’t the ones who simply work harder, they’re the ones who work smarter. They set six things in motion now, before the rush hits. Let’s look at those six things.
Get clear on priorities first
Before anything else, your team needs to know what actually matters most over the next four to six months. Narrowing down is the name of the game, not trying to capture everything in one giant list. The handful of things that matter most, clearly named, so everyone is rowing in the same direction when things get busy and confusing.
Think of this as a seasonal vision. It is near-term, not long range. You are not painting some big five year picture. You are simply telling your team: here is what we need to accomplish this season, and here is why it matters. That clarity becomes the thing people fall back on when everything speeds up and it gets hard to think straight.
Manage your energy, not just your time
This pattern may seem or feel familiar. Everybody comes out strong in August and September. Seasonal meetings or calls kick everything off. The energy is high, the team is fresh, and it feels excited and manageable. Then November and December hit, the months that matter most, and everyone is suddenly exhausted and stressed.
Energy management means pacing yourself and your team on purpose so you still have something left when the business really gets going. That might mean protecting a slower week in September or October so people can recharge before things get busier. It might mean noticing early when someone is starting to burn out and adjusting before it becomes a real problem. Whatever it looks like for your business, the goal is the same. Do not let your team peak too early.
For most retailers, the work is different each month during this window of time. You’ve got the prep and communication stages that happen initially; this gets everyone on the same page. Then you have a mix of seasonal hiring, product flowing into the stores, and the setup. This can be hard work and requires a lot of planning and coordination. It is easy to take this work for granted because it feels so familiar. Then the real work is selling and replenishing throughout the peak weeks of the season. That is when you need the most energy and peak performance at peak levels. Using the approach above ensures you can hit your stride at that point, not feel like you’re gasping for breath.
Delegate like it is your job, because it is
Delegation is one of the most important tools you have for managing your own energy and your team’s energy. If you are still doing tasks that someone else on your team could be doing, this is the season to change that. Your attention is going to be pulled in more directions than usual over the next few months, and you need to have already handed off what you can before that happens. Planning ahead of time which pieces you will handle and what you need your team to handle will help set everyone up for success. Everyone knows the role they will play and the responsibilities they have.
This goes both ways too. Help your team leverage their own resources and each other, not just you. A team that only functions when the leader is available is a team that will struggle the second things get really busy.
Get ahead of the work now
Workload, issues, and existing problems aren’t like fine wine, they don’t get better with age. Pushing things off because it feels overwhelming right now will only add to that feeling, not make it better down the road. Address problems now. Things that could have been handled in August or September, but were pushed off, pile on top of the unexpected items that show up during the busiest parts of the season. Identify, name, and take action on the concerns you have now instead of waiting.
By the way, January rarely offers the respite we all hope will come. The new year brings its own workload.
Even if things are in good shape now, anticipate what needs to get done over the next several months and figure out what can be knocked out now, while things are still relatively calm. Do not let easy tasks turn into a pile of catch up work waiting for you in the middle of your busiest stretch. Future you, standing in a packed store in December, will thank present you for handling this now.
Start planning next year while you are still in this one
This may sound odd, but the best time to think about January is actually in October. While you are in the middle of the season, start jotting down what you are noticing. What needs to change. What worked well and should carry into next year. What you want to prioritize once the rush is over and before the next set of activities arrives.
If you wait until the new year actually starts to think about any of this, you will be starting from zero at the exact moment you are already tired and trying to catch up from the holidays. A little planning now saves you a rough start to January.
Protect your team's time with their people
The last item might be the most important. Yes, the season is going to be busy. Yes, there is real work that has to get done. But everyone on your team has people they want to spend time with during the holidays too. Start talking to your team now about what they need and want off during the season. Work through it together so the business can still run and people can still get real time with their families. Talking about it and planning it out is the kind of thing people remember about a leader for years. The leader who found a way to make sure they got holiday family time versus the one that never asked or didn’t care means more than most realize.
Don’t make assumptions. By asking about people’s needs you may find out that people have different times they need off and can fill in for others when you least expect it. Someone may have a holiday celebration the week before the actual calendar event due to family reasons, and be willing to work when others want the holiday off for their needs. Working with the full team and having open conversations about it can often build a better plan than you may expect with assumptions of how you’ve seen it work in the past.
Bringing it all together
These six things build on each other more than they might seem to at first glance. Clarity gives your team direction. Energy management and delegation keep everyone able to actually execute on that direction. Getting ahead of the work protects you from a frustrating December. Planning ahead protects your January. And protecting your team's time protects the thing that matters most: the people doing the work.
The season is coming whether you are ready or not, so jump in and begin getting yourself and your team ready now.
What steps do you take to get ahead of the peak seasons?
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