What’s on your Christmas wish list this year? A Sage coffee machine, an Oura Ring, or perhaps an Owala water bottle? Father Christmas has it all, but only if your name is found in a very exclusive place: the nice list.

Besides the presents up for grabs, there are many other, far more important reasons you should care whether you’re on the naughty or nice list this year, especially if you’re a business leader. After all, research shows that traits such as kindness can boost business profits.

So as Christmas eve draws near, which list might you find yourself on this year?

2024 has been a largely positive year for businesses across many sectors. Sustainability has become a key focus, with many investing in green energy and technologies in a bid to do better for people and planet, not just make profit.

Speaking of technology, this too has rapidly advanced over the 2024, with employers investing in AI to help staff enhance their working lives, taking away some stresses and enhancing decision-making.

Employers have also continued to embrace hybrid working. For those that can continue to enjoy the flexibility of working from home, there have been perks such as better work-life balance, better productivity, and enjoying far more accessibility to work and career options no longer ring-fenced by geography.

However, on the other side, 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record after an extended streak of exceptionally high monthly global mean temperatures, according to the United Nations. With increasing scepticism over whether companies’ green initiatives are merely just greenwashing or “greenshifting” responsibility to consumers.

On the tech front, whilst it might currently be a rather pricey prospect for companies to entirely replace their human staff with AI workers (at least according to research from MIT), there continues to be a very real worry amongst many professionals that not only are AI assistant’s capabilities outstripping their own, but their wage demands are far lower. Over 70% of managers say they have significant skill shortages within their teams, causing disruptions in productivity and an urgent need for upskilling initiatives. With many companies looking to tighten their belts, the choice to retrain or replace staff might leave some staff with little option other than to start 2025 with a job hunt.

Some companies have also been busy this year issuing return-to-office mandates – clearly feeling that progress and productivity must also go hand in hand with presence. The result of this has been an increasing number of professionals jumping ship or seeking new opportunities for the new year.  

While ‘naughty’ and ‘nice’ are arguably very subjective terms, the end of the year is a great time to reflect on the goods and bads, your actions and contributions as a leader this year, and how you can be even better next year.

Use innovation to create a better future

If you want to make it onto the good list, the first step might be re-evaluating your thinking.

Until now, we have associated ‘innovation’ with ‘progress,’ and progress’ with ‘good’. But when it comes to innovation perhaps we should not be asking ‘What is possible to create?’ but ‘Should we be creating this?’, suggests entrepreneur Michael Baum in a recent IE Insights article.

He gives the example of technology. Social media has evolved drastically without anyone asking what the positive and negative impacts would be. Since its creation, it’s had mixed results – great for overall connectivity, but with varied impacts on mental health. Now, with generative AI, we’re doing the same thing without acknowledging the potentially negative side effects.

Consider, for example, the amount of CO2 consumption data centres are taking up. According to recent analysis from the Guardian, the real emissions from 2020 to 2022 from the ‘in-house’ or company-owned data centres of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are around 662% – or 7.62 times – higher than officially reported. Google and Microsoft both blamed AI for their recent upticks in market-based emissions.

“Technology is one of the only fields today where we don’t really have a philosophical component,” reveals Baum. Because of this, conscious innovation and entrepreneurship must be taken into account in the future, he declares.

The good news is that the next generation of innovators is taking these aspects into account, more so than their predecessors.

“Today’s innovators and entrepreneurs really do care more about purpose in what they’re doing,” he says. “They care about healing the planet. They care about healing people, much more so than we ever thought of a decade or two ago.”

Put your ego aside

When we look for examples of great leaders, we often look to those who stood out – Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr.

However, good leaders should act less as star players, and more as coaches, says Yih-Teen Lee, a Professor in the Department of Managing People in Organizations and the academic director of the IESE Coaching Unit.

To be a good leader you need to be able to put your ego aside and transcend your self-interest, Professor Lee explains.

He says that to grow as an employee or leader, you must begin by acknowledging your personal limitations. This will allow you to develop strategies for improvement and engage in honest discussions that highlight your blind spots. Self-awareness helps refine how you perceive your impact on others and reduces misunderstandings about your actions.

Practising mindfulness enhances this self-awareness by allowing you to better understand your thoughts and emotions. Identifying and labelling feelings will enable you to make more informed decisions.

Embracing a ‘quiet ego’ further helps shift focus from individual gains to collective goals, aligning personal fulfilment with organisational well-being for mutual growth.

Encourage your employees to express themselves

A great leader will encourage their employees to show their personalities in the workplace. Allowing people to express themselves authentically in the workplace is good for both the individuals and the organisations that employ them.

Doing so can enhance wellbeing, increase job satisfaction, improve employee motivation and more, write professors, Dr Aneeta Rattan and Dr Aharon Cohem-Mohliver, in an article for London Business School’s Think.

Leaders must strive to create an environment where all employees feel a sense of belonging, they write, regardless of their social identities. Employees must be able to be themselves, and be accepted as an equal.

People look to their surroundings for signals that they are being accepted. Leaders can transmit positive signals here: improving representation, stereotyping cues, and highlighting their belief that potential is widespread.

If you have to make layoffs, focus on the human element

This year, companies across tech, media, finance, manufacturing, and retail have continued to cut jobs. Big names like Airbus, Ford, and General Motors have all recently announced mass layoffs.

For many, this is AI related. Around four in 10 leaders said they would conduct layoffs as they replace workers with AI. However, in Singapore, data released in October by the country’s Manpower Ministry showed that corporate restructuring remained the top reason for retrenchments.

As an employee, there is no ‘nice’ way to be laid off. However, as a leader, you can make the process as painless as possible for both sides. Timely, clear and transparent communication is key, says Dr Andy Yap, an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD.

Bad news must be communicated through personal, face-to-face conversations, rather than impersonal methods like emails or texts. The way news is communicated represents the level of respect a company has for employees, says Dr Yap. Because of this, the message should be delivered by someone with high emotional intelligence, capable of handling difficult conversations with empathy and care.

It’s not just those who are being let go who need this emotional care, though. Employees who are left behind may be feeling ‘survivor’s guilt’ – and it’s up to leaders to build that trust and reassurance, acknowledging the concerns and anxieties of surviving staff and showing empathy.

After all, the true legacy of a leader is not defined by how they steer the organisation during good times, but rather by how they behave, make decisions and lead their teams when times are tough.

A time for reflection

So over this festive period, take some time to reflect on your leadership skills. Go back to work in the new year refreshed and ready to create positive change.

By creating small changes in your own sphere, you can help to bring about big changes in your organisation, which will have an impact in the wider world.

And by next year, you’ll might find yourself at the top of Santa’s nice list.

By, Chloë Lane

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