Winter is Coming: Is Your Operating System Held Together by Fencing Wire and Hope?
Why Business Momentum Slows Down in Winter And What Your Operating System Has to Do With It
Ever noticed how your team's (and maybe even your own) momentum seems to stall around this time of year?
It’s usually more obvious, and expected, around the Christmas season, but it can be frustrating when the year moves on so fast, and Mad March feels like it just happened.
You’re not imagining it.
We often blame it on EOFY stress, or that swirling cloud of business uncertainty hovering over budgets, restructures, and delayed decisions. But maybe, just maybe, it’s something more elemental. Maybe your team, your business, your management operating system is simply responding to the season.
Just like nature, teams sometimes need their own 'Winter.'
(Thanks to Leaders Institute, Joanna Giannes, and Kristina Dryza during my time with the GLF for helping me see the patterns that go unnoticed when you constantly swap the balcony for the dance floor.)
In nature, Winter isn’t failure. It’s pause, reflection, and regeneration — preparing for Spring. Yet in business, we often treat any seasonal slowdown as a sign of weakness. Something to patch over with a hurried sprint, another productivity initiative, or motivational duct tape.
But here’s the rub: if your Leadership Operating System is already limping along and has been stitched together with makeshift rituals and above-and-beyond efforts from key team members, then Winter hits hard.
Think of your high performers, or your reliable “toilers,” as the fencing wire and duct tape keeping fragile machinery running. Day in, day out, they're holding it together and making it work despite the system, not because of it.
That’s admirable. It’s also unsustainable.
Because when Winter comes, as it always does, that duct tape gets brittle. The toilers get sick. Priorities blur. And without a solid organisational structure underneath, the whole thing slows to a crawl. That’s when you start to see the cost of leadership indecision and team burnout.
So instead of fighting the seasonal pause, what if you leaned into it?
What if, rather than adding more to the load, this was the moment to check the rigging on your business operating system and reflect on what’s helping or hindering your processes, your people, and your own leadership energy?
Ask yourself:
Are your rhythms and rituals still serving their intended purpose, or have they become merely a habit?
Do your team’s priorities remain clear when business momentum drops, or do they vanish in the fog?
Are decisions flowing smoothly, or frozen in the permafrost of indecision?
If your team’s losing steam right now, don’t panic. Take it as a cue.
Try again, and this time use the pause to reflect, repair, and reinforce your strategy. Ask yourself:
What’s too important to fail right now? What needs to be true for it to succeed — people, systems, or both?
What’s being propped up by individual effort, instead of being supported by smart, scalable design?
What can be pruned now, so the next growth season can flourish?
Winter isn’t just a business slowdown. It’s a signal. A call to examine your leadership systems, decision-making processes, and operating rhythm.
This might be the season to strengthen the machine, not just rely on the fencing wire.
If this winter feels heavier than usual and your systems are showing strain, you don’t have to push through it alone.
Contact us today to explore how Embertree can help you steady the ship, support your leadership team, and rebuild momentum where it’s starting to slip.
Winter doesn’t have to break your rhythm. Sometimes, it’s the best time to strengthen it.