Wait, Santa has Competencies?!
Like those of us in sales, Santa needs to be at his peak performance, especially at this time of year. His job literally depends on it.
But, contrary to popular opinion, Santa doesn’t sleep all year and expect to pull it out of the bag (pun intended) at the last minute. No, he practices and hones his skills all year round to guarantee performance when it counts.
To make sure he’s consistent year after year, you can bet your bottom dollar that Santa has a structured competency framework that he religiously sticks to. Why? Because he knows that’s ‘What Good Looks Like’ for the role of Father Christmas! It helps him stay focused and measure where he’s up to along his journey.
We spoke to Santa earlier this month.
“You might think I’d be stressed at this time of year but I’m not. I’ve been preparing for this all year and I know that by focusing on the inputs, consistently, I am in the best place I can be to perform at my optimum.”
Santa was kind enough to share his view of What Good Looks Like and how he maintains his performance year after year:
We delved a little deeper…it’s all well and good having a list of things to work on, but how does he know where he’s up to?
“Great question! I have a set of indicators, or measures if you will, that tell me throughout the year whether I’m on track to hit my Christmas goal. I wouldn’t feel confident just hoping for the best! Over the years, I have learned what to look out for…”
If setting leading indicators and measures across sales is difficult, we couldn’t imagine how Santa would do it!
“Well, I rely on feedback from my little helpers of course and I track progress over time”
“For example, on ‘Present Wrapping’ we look at how fast I can do it and combine that with feedback from the elves as to the quality”
“In recent years, I have had to really focus on my knowledge of Security. I go on training courses all year to stay up to date with the latest home security developments and then the reindeer, elves and I run through simulation after simulation to get it right. We score against time, noise and leaving no trace on that one”
So it seems from Sales to Santa himself, if you want to be at your peak performance, there are 3 simple things you can do:
Define what good looks like for the role;
Develop, consistently, to that framework; and
Measure the leading indicators to track progress
Finally, we asked Santa how he would be celebrating his success on Boxing Day this year:
“Well, as I’ve been busy organising the presents I have completely missed the FIFA World Cup so I am avoiding all spoilers and am going to watch all 64 matches back to back. The North Pole team didn’t make it to the tournament this year but I have bet my Sleigh on Brazil winning so I’m pretty sure I’ll be in great spirits by the end of the day when I turn my thoughts to Christmas 2023”…
