The holiday season is here, and while most are dreaming of sugarplums and PTO, Santa’s been busy auditing project managers. Yes, he’s making his list, checking it twice, and this year, it’s all about project communication, leadership, and who’s been managing naughty or nice.
Let’s head to the North Pole, where two high-performing elves, Tiffany and Thomas, have been leading some of Santa’s most mission-critical initiatives. One leads like a pro. The other… well, let’s just say, his status update includes coal and an apology note to the reindeer. Their tales may be fictional, but if you’ve managed a team this year, they might hit a little close to home.
🎁 Communication: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
When Tiffany kicked off her holiday launch project, she did what professionals do: held weekly team syncs, created a shared dashboard, and sent stakeholder updates that were both timely and clear (a rare gift).
Thomas? He sent a one-liner that said, “Let’s aim to be done by Tuesday?”
That was the entire plan. No follow-up. No questions allowed. Stakeholders were expected to stay updated by… existing in the general vicinity of the work.
Why overcommunicate, right? That would require effort. And clarity.
🎅 Verdict:
Tiffany lands on the Nice List. Her communication created alignment, reduced rework, and kept momentum strong. Her team felt informed and her stakeholders stayed engaged.
Thomas gets a lump of coal wrapped in ambiguity. His “less is more” approach led to confusion, delays, and one too many side conversations that started with, “Wait, were we supposed to do that?”
🎄 Setting Expectations: Defining the Present Under the Tree
Before the first ornament was hung, Tiffany gathered her team for a kickoff meeting. They aligned on scope, deliverables, roles, and success metrics. They even did a pre-mortem to surface potential roadblocks. Classic overachiever move—and it worked.
Thomas skipped the kickoff. “The title of the project is self-explanatory. We’re building toys,” he shrugged, waving vaguely at a whiteboard. Sure. Because “ElfOps Revamp Q4” really screams clarity. The result? Confusion, missed milestones, and a suspicious number of Nerf swords marked “urgent.”
🎅 Verdict:
Setting expectations isn’t busywork—it’s how you avoid scope creep, team confusion, and panicked last-minute patch jobs. Tiffany earns another candy cane badge of honor. She laid the groundwork.
Thomas laid a trap and stepped directly into it. He gets the silent treatment from the gift-wrapping team.
🤶 Stakeholder Involvement: A Team Sport
Tiffany made stakeholder engagement a top priority. She scheduled regular check-ins, followed up when folks missed meetings, and customized updates so nobody was blindsided. Even when things got hectic, she found ways to keep everyone informed.
Meanwhile, Thomas … well, he figured stakeholders would stay aligned through holiday spirit alone. Of course, they didn’t. When things started to go off-track, he fired off a long, slightly defensive update titled “Quick heads-up.” It was neither quick nor helpful.
Who knew that ignoring key decision-makers might lead to chaos? (Answer: everyone.)
🎅 Verdict:
Tiffany treated stakeholder communication as a proactive strategy.
Thomas treated it like an afterthought and paid for it in rework, frustration, and one very frosty executive meeting.
🧝♂️ Team Dynamics: The Elves in Santa’s Workshop
When friction emerged between two team members, Tiffany didn’t pretend not to notice. She addressed it directly and scheduled a quick retro, shuffled roles to better match strengths, and opened the door for honest feedback.
Thomas noticed the tension but chose to ignore it. “We’re all adults here. I’m not here to play elf therapist,” he muttered. This is a great philosophy until your team is openly arguing over glue gun usage at the gingerbread assembly line. Resentment on the team snowballed into full-on mutinies.
🎅 Verdict:
Team dynamics don’t fix themselves. Addressing conflict early isn’t soft, it’s strategic.
Tiffany built trust and earned her elf leadership badge.
Thomas built resentment and gets a passive-aggressive note in his stocking.
🪙 Budget Constraints: Making Every Penny (and Peppermint) Count
Halfway through the quarter, budget cuts hit. Turns out, reindeer snacks are super expensive. (who knew?) Tiffany immediately reassessed priorities, calmly reallocated resources, negotiated better terms with candy vendors, and trimmed non-essential spend.
Thomas continued on like it was business as usual. When questioned, he blamed “scope creep” and replied, “Well, the plan changed. Not my fault.” Somewhere, an elf in Finance sprouted a new gray hair.
🎅 Verdict:
Tiffany adapted like a pro.
Thomas is now the subject of a “Lessons Learned” session in Elf Finance.
Budget management is leadership in action – not just balancing numbers, but making hard calls when resources tighten.
🌨️ Risk Management: Planning for Blizzards
Tiffany ran a risk planning session during project initiation and created contingency plans for key threats. So when a vendor dropped out mid-project, she calmly implemented Plan B, kept the timeline intact, and moved on.
Thomas called risk planning “a vibe killer.” So when the toy-printing machine jammed during crunch week, he panicked, made four conflicting decisions in an hour, and then blamed the printer.
🎅 Verdict:
Tiffany’s foresight allowed her team to pivot with confidence – staying calm and coordinated, even in a flurry.
Thomas’s improvisation left his team scrambling and his timeline in shambles.
🎁 So… Which List Are You On?
If you found yourself nodding along with Thomas’s antics – maybe laughing a little too nervously – consider this your festive gut check. I mean, we’ve all had a coal-worthy moment or two, right? The holidays might bring chaos, but strong project management doesn’t melt under pressure.
Whether you’re managing toy rollouts or transformation initiatives, the Nice List starts with:
✅ Clear, structured communication
✅ Defined expectations and roles
✅ Engaged stakeholders
✅ Healthy team dynamics
✅ Smart budgeting
✅ Actual risk planning
Tiffany didn’t save the season with Christmas magic. She planned for success and executed. That’s what good project management looks like.
So yes, laugh at Thomas. But maybe also… quietly audit your last project before Q1 sneaks up. You’ve still got time to turn this sleigh around.
Santa’s watching. And so is your COO. 😉
