Looking for a way to build a stronger connection with your staff and their families? Consider sending personalized holiday greeting cards to the spouses of your staff!
Copying an idea I got out of an awesome book called Hacking Leadership by Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis, I worked with our secretarial staff to track down the names of husbands, wives, fiances, and significant others for all members of our teaching staff. Each of these individuals was sent a personalized, school district-themed "Happy Holidays" postcard similar to the sample you see below.
I think we can all agree that teaching is a demanding job, and sometimes this stress can take its toll on the rest of the educator's family. Therefore, I wanted to make sure that the spouses and significant others of our staff knew that our teachers had "permission" to forget about work for a couple weeks and enjoy some quality family time together.
While there is a bit of up-front work with these cards (card design, finding addresses, determining who gets cards, etc.) the overall feedback I received on these cards was outstanding! Not only did these notes help add to our culture where employees feel valued, this activity gave me a chance to learn the names of some of our spouses, which has helped "break the ice" at school functions and social events.
This idea can be easily replicated in other organizations, not just schools. I would highly recommend that any leaders who are looking for ways to forge stronger ties with their staff look at making this a holiday tradition!
