Leadership Lessons From the Strasbourg Christmas Market
If you want to experience the magic of Christmas and secretly complete a resilience bootcamp, book yourself a trip to the Strasbourg Christmas Market. Known as the “Capital of Christmas,” Strasbourg offers twinkling lights, medieval charm, and enough vin chaud to make even your toughest Q4 meeting seem manageable (although a little sweet compared to Prague!)
The market is pretty impressive with the wooden huts, huge ornaments on buildings, cathedral-sized pretzels, and more festive sweaters than a corporate holiday party gone rogue. And yes, you will buy things you don’t need. A hand-carved santa you’ll never display? Of course. A ceramic Gnome heavier than your carry-on limit? Obviously. That’s not overspending, that’s cross-functional learning. And yes, Shelli and I are guilty as charged!
But behind the continual “pardon” (say it with a French accent), spilled mulled wine and sugar highs lie some leadership lessons:
1. Communication is Key Ordering in freezing temperatures whilst speaking bad French teaches concise, confident communication. It also proves the fact that 55% of communication is physical and 38% tone. I’m glad no one videoed my attempts at French with flailing arms, but If you can articulate “two mulled wine” at –4°C (25F), you can handle any boardroom.
2. Committing to the Queueing The Brits of course excel at this so I was in my element, but every line is long enough to qualify as a team-building exercise. Leaders learn to commit to a queue (project) and see it through. Here my reward was the mulled wine, which is frankly better than most KPIs.
3. Resource Management vs. Temptation Strasbourg proves that budgeting is theoretical. A nice to have!! As leaders, we learn discipline, or at least how to justify impulse purchases as “supporting local SMEs.”
4. Emotional Intelligence in Crowds Getting bumped, photobombed (and photo-bombing), and jostled builds grace under pressure. Great leaders don’t snap — they smile and keep moving. Be nice in the chaos, it diffuses quicker than a rant about “I was here first, mate”
5. Celebrate Small Wins Finding a free table or not spilling hot wine on your (white) winter coat is a victory. Leadership is about appreciating these micro-moments, and celebrating them too!
So what did Strasbourg, the self proclaimed “Capital of Christmas” teach me? Well, if you can survive Christmas shopping here with good humor, improved communication skills, patience, and escape with good memories, then you’re ready for whatever the next quarter throws at you.
