December has a particular rhythm in Canada’s business landscape. For some industries, it’s the busiest month of the year — year-end reporting, holiday deadlines, customer expectations, and team fatigue all converge. For others, it’s a quieter season that still carries the emotional weight of reflection, transition, and closing out the year well.

No matter the industry, December has a way of speeding everything up.

For missional business leaders, this season becomes more than a scheduling challenge. It’s an invitation. A moment to model a different kind of leadership — the kind that slows down internally even when everything around us accelerates. The kind that practices presence.

Redemptive leadership doesn’t ignore urgency. It steps into it with peace, attentiveness, and intentionality — offering teams and customers a glimpse of what the Kingdom looks like in real time.

Why Presence Matters When Pressure Rises

When timelines tighten, people tend to do the opposite of what they need: they rush, multitask, cut corners, and slip into transactional communication. Leaders feel the pressure first — and teams feel it next.

But presence is countercultural.

Presence says:
You matter more than the pace. The work matters, but the way we do it matters just as much.

Presence creates psychological safety. It reduces anxiety. It refocuses priorities. It opens space for wiser decision-making. And in a season charged with emotion, expectations, and competing demands, presence becomes a profoundly redemptive act.

As Jesus modelled, presence is often the beginning of transformation. (“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” — John 14:27)

Missional business leaders carry peace into environments that have forgotten how to pause.

Three Practices to Help You Lead with Presence This December

1. Slow Down Your First Response

When the pace increases, so does reactivity. A stressed team member comes with a problem. A supplier misses a shipment. A customer is frustrated. You feel the pull to respond quickly, decisively — perhaps even sharply.

Missional business leadership takes a beat.

A simple internal pause — one deep breath, one silent prayer, one moment of grounding — changes everything. It shifts the tone. It reframes the conversation. It makes room for wisdom instead of urgency-driven reaction.

Practising presence starts with slowing your own internal tempo.

Try this:
Before every meeting, phone call, or decision this December, pause for five seconds. Ask:
What does faithfulness look like right now? What does this person in front of me most need?

Small pauses create space for redemptive action.

2. Lead With Attentiveness, Not Assumptions

December is often emotional for people — joy, hope, grief, exhaustion, anticipation. Your team and customers are carrying stories you may not know.

Attentive leadership looks beyond the task to the person. It notices tone, energy, and unspoken stress. It resists the temptation to default to efficiency and instead asks curious, compassionate questions.

Attentiveness might sound like:

“How are you really doing this week?”
“What would make this season easier for you?”
“Where do you feel pressure right now?”

These questions take minutes, but they deepen trust for months. Attentiveness affirms dignity — and dignity is at the heart of redemptive work.

Through our conversations across Canada, we hear again and again that the leaders who are most trusted are the ones who notice.

3. Be Intentional About What You Celebrate

When everything speeds up, teams can lose sight of meaning. Tasks become checkboxes. Year-end goals overshadow the bigger picture.

Intentional celebration brings vision back into focus.

Celebrate:

Small wins
Acts of integrity
Steps of courage
Team collaboration
Customer stories
Quiet faithfulness

Celebration reminds your team why their work matters. It reinforces the truth that contribution transforms trajectories. It roots the hectic season in hope instead of hurry.

And you don’t need elaborate holiday events or expensive gestures — a handwritten card, a thoughtful email, or a moment of public affirmation often carries far more weight.

Intentional celebration is one of the simplest ways to model Kingdom posture in a busy season.

A Season Filled With Opportunity

December will always be full — full of work, expectations, emotions, deadlines, and decisions. But for Kingdom-minded business leaders, it’s also full of opportunity.

Opportunity to embody peace in places shaped by pressure.
Opportunity to help teams feel seen rather than squeezed.
Opportunity to slow down enough to lead with wisdom instead of urgency.
Opportunity to let your presence reshape the atmosphere around you.

This is redemptive leadership — not louder, faster, or busier, but grounded, attentive, and deeply present. The kind of leadership that quietly shifts cultures.

And you don’t have to practice it alone.

If you’re looking to grow in this kind of leadership alongside others who share your heart for business as mission, consider joining the BAM Canada Network — a community created to help Canadian business owners integrate purpose, faith, and practical action in every season.

Together, we can lead with presence when the world speeds up.