Avoid These 3 Traps and Take the Time to Celebrate Success with Your Teams
Recently I was catching up with a former colleague of mine who was sharing with me the joy of finally reaching a long-awaited release of a new software platform she and her team had been working on. It took months of planning, collaboration, and hard work, but the team had reached its goal! Hurray!
Achievements like this are definitely worth celebrating, but how often do we, as leaders, take the time to recognize our teams for hard-earned accomplishments and truly celebrate? Probably not enough.
Leaders of high-performing teams show appreciation by ensuring they celebrate success together. This builds a strong culture of collaboration and helps everyone feel connected.
If you find yourself hesitant to reward your team with celebrations, here are 3 traps to avoid.
1. It’s Just Business as Usual
Accomplishing a goal is worth celebrating, even if it is “part of the job.” If we wait for a spectacular, unique result to happen in order to celebrate, it robs the team of experiencing the joy of reaching a milestone together.
2. Not Everyone Likes a Party
Celebrations can be done in a variety of ways (we’ve had to get creative in a pandemic). I recommend polling your people to find out how they’d like to celebrate. Is it a lunch, a recreational activity, or even a gift to mark the occasion? By asking, you can tailor a celebration that will be most meaningful.
3. We Still Have a Big Hill to Climb
It’s easy to finish one big project and jump right to the next. There will always be a never-ending list of things to get done. However, when we don’t stop to celebrate, we miss an opportunity to take a breath. Leaders who push their teams to the next goal without acknowledging the work that has been done will likely create a culture of burn-out.
How have you celebrated successes with your team lately? Maybe now is the time to be planning how you will reward the entire team for their next accomplishment.
Do you have advice on how to best celebrate team successes?