TL;DR: “Let’s pick this up after the holidays” is one of the most expensive things leaders say in November, because delayed decisions pile up and turn January into a backlog instead of a fresh start. The leaders who start the new year with momentum make the calls they can before the holidays and set a firm date for the ones they can’t.
Listen closely in almost any meeting between now and mid-December and you’ll hear it. “Let’s pick this up after the holidays.”
It sounds reasonable. People are busy, half the team is about to be out, and nobody wants to kick off something big right before Thanksgiving. But when that sentence gets attached to decisions that are ready to be made, it does real damage.
Delayed decisions don’t wait quietly. The work that depends on them stalls, the people waiting lose momentum, and by the first week of January you have a stack of open questions instead of a team ready to execute. That’s how a new year starts a month behind.
The fix is simple. Before the holidays, separate the decisions that truly need more information from the ones you’re just putting off, and make the second group now.
Why Leaders Push Decisions Into January
Some of it is fatigue. By November, leaders are tired, and deferring feels like relief. Some of it is the calendar, because it’s hard to get the right people in the same room when everyone is traveling.
And some of it, honestly, is avoidance dressed up as good timing. A hard call about a reorganization, a budget cut, or a struggling project feels easier to face in the new year. It isn’t. It’s the same decision in January, except now everyone has spent six weeks waiting on it.
What Delayed Decisions Actually Cost
Every decision you push past the holidays carries a price:
- Teams spend December on work that might get thrown out.
- Hiring, budget, and vendor timelines slip because approvals never happened.
- Your best people lose energy while they wait for direction.
- January becomes catch-up instead of execution.
None of these costs show up on a single line of a report, which is exactly why leaders underestimate them. The damage is spread across a dozen small delays, and by the time anyone adds it up, the first quarter is already half over.
There’s a credibility cost too. When a team watches its leader push the same decision from October to November to “after the holidays,” they stop believing the decision is coming at all. Some of them start making their own calls in the gap, and now you have a different problem.
How to Clear Your Decision Backlog Before the Holidays
Sit down this week and list every decision that has been sitting open on your team. Then sort them honestly.
If a decision is ready and you have what you need, make it before Thanksgiving. If it truly needs more information, name exactly what’s missing, who is getting it, and the date in January when you’ll decide. Put that date on the calendar now.
Then tell your team. “We’re deciding this on January 8” gives people something to plan around. “Let’s pick this up after the holidays” gives them nothing.
Start January With Decisions, Not Questions
The leaders who walk into the new year with momentum aren’t working harder in December. They just refuse to let decisions drift. Make the calls you can now, schedule the rest, and give your team a clean start in January.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should leaders make big decisions before the holidays?
Yes, if the decision is ready. Waiting for the new year doesn’t make a decision easier, and the work that depends on it stalls in the meantime. If a decision truly needs more information, set a specific date in January to make it and tell your team when that is.
How do I keep projects moving through the holiday season?
Make the open decisions your projects depend on before people leave for Thanksgiving and December break. Be clear about who owns each piece of work while people are out, and set realistic expectations for what will move during the last two weeks of the year. Projects stall over the holidays because of missing decisions far more often than missing people.
What is the cost of delayed decisions?
Delayed decisions slow down every piece of work that depends on them. Teams waste time on work that may change, timelines slip, and people lose momentum while they wait. A decision put off for six weeks rarely gets better information. It usually just gets more expensive.
