The one people activity most companies overlook
Time and time again, whether it’s a CEO, a business owner or a team leader, I hear various versions of,
“We know better but we just don’t take the time to celebrate the small wins.”
The demands of running the business too often trump celebrating the victories along the way and here’s the thing—everyone accepts this rationale as reasonable. Unfortunately these teams miss out on the motivation and sense of purpose it generates and in the long term are going to feel the overwhelming pressure of burnout and stress.
I’m not saying it’s easy to make the shift so let’s simply recognize that celebrating small wins is difficult to do but then let’s get off the hamster wheel of always moving on to the next thing and find a way to hard-wire celebration into your standard operating procedures.
Again, let’s not over-complicate or over-think how you can celebrate with your team. Here are a three simple ways you can celebrate the small wins in your company:
as a company, add a section in your newsletter that highlights some of the wins and the people involved
as a department, set time set aside in your weekly meeting rhythm to focus specifically on the wins of the last week—be prepared to get the ball rolling with wins you’ve witnessed
as an individual, be intentional and on the lookout for small wins and when you Witness a Win, it’s time to celebrate. You might send an email, drop them a handwritten note or initiate a 1-on-1 conversation. You might take them to lunch or do something else and it’s really only limited by your imagination.
We have a client, who at their regular executive meetings have each member of the executive share good news stories about their individual teams. Then after the meeting, each executive connects with one or two people not on their team who were talked about at the meeting and they celebrate their success with that person directly. This very simple gratitude exercise builds incredible connections and trust throughout the organization—and as you can imagine, it is extremely powerful.
If you’re already celebrating small wins—keep it up. If you’re not, get started.
And in the meantime, please share with us how you celebrate small wins in your organization.
