What are you bringing to Christmas dinner?
There’s a good chance a list is going around your family right now. You know, that one where everybody signs up for what they are bringing to Christmas dinner.
Ham, rolls, eggnog … all the tastes and smells that make holiday memories.
But what else are you bringing to dinner this year?
For those that work with family members, we may unintentionally come to the table with something “salty” like harbored resentment, a “casserole” of unresolved conflict from the farm, or “chips” on our shoulders from past hurts. That's when the joy of Christmas turns into anxiety and irritability.
If that’s you, you are not alone. And as Jay Joy with Bridgeforth LLP explains in Episode 6 of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, you have the power to choose what you bring to Christmas dinner.
Here are Jay’s 5 tips for surviving the holidays as a family business:
1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. If you go to the family gathering looking for a fight, you will find one.
2. Set a time frame. Family holidays don’t have to be an all-day affair, especially for family members who already spend most of their day together. Keep it concise to keep spirits high.
3. Focus conversations around celebrating rather than strategizing. Make the mental decision to leave work at the dairy, and not to bring it to the holiday dinner table. Pick up your plate and sit by the family members you don’t see every day.
4. Walk in with the spirit of grace, forgiveness and gratitude. It’s a lot easier to receive grace, forgiveness and gratitude if you first give it. Treat this time together as a gift and a blessing.
5. Act as if this could be your last holiday get together because for some, it could be. Let that attitude frame your interactions.
Challenge: So as you decide which holiday dish you’ll put your name next to, what else will you bring to the table for Christmas dinner?
Jay is the owner of Milk Money LLC and partner in Bridgeforth LLP. He is a fractional CFO, family business advisor and executive coach to several dairies and other agriculture enterprises, always with the goal to help family-owned enterprises move forward and stay family.
