How do you celebrate success?
/Naturally, when we reach the end of the year we begin to reflect on our achievements.
It is likely that our stand-out moments throughout the year will be successes that we have celebrated within the team or organisation; but what happens if, as a leader, you have continually pushed your team through to the next challenge without pausing to reflect and celebrate — will your team keep on succeeding or will their motivation to achieve new goals start to wane?
Companies that don’t celebrate success will eventually have no success to celebrate.
We strongly believe that positively reinforcing the effort and achievements of even the smallest daily wins helps to drive motivation which in turn drives greater future progress.
Success lasts when you use the powerful and inclusive force of celebration to motivate and lead teams to achieve the next goal time and time again. Simply holding out for the big one isn’t going to cut it.
Imagine that — a positive culture celebrating wins and motivating each other to achieve more?
This may seem more easily said than done, so we have spoken to two leaders for inspiration and asked them:
“What do you do to celebrate success?”
Martin Reed
Group Managing Director of Incentive FM
“At Incentive FM, we celebrate success by making personal contact with team members in either a structured or informal way. In our business, a drop in to a site by senior managers to give a personal thank you and recognise outstanding performance means more than any certificate, prize or written thank you.
We have formal timed rewards and recognition such as ‘Employee of the Year’ and ‘Job Well Done’ spot awards. These more formal processes are important but not as important as a personal thank you. As we get bigger and we have more staff and more contracts this becomes a challenge for the senior team but they all understand it true importance and ensure they dedicate time to achieve it.”
Adam Thomson
Group General Manager of Group Sales Distribution at International SOS
“We have five levels of reward and recognition, ranging from ‘Share your wins’ to the ‘Global Elite Club’.
‘Share your wins’, celebrates account retention as well as new business and this particular scheme encourages all wins to be celebrated. It is very inclusive, so regardless of whether it’s the largest deal by the most experienced employee or the smallest win by the newest team member – each occasion is celebrated with the team member being personally recognised and this communication is circulated to all regional employees.
We also have ‘Kudos Awards’ for anyone seen to be going above and beyond their role, as well as ‘Employee of the Year / Quarter’, for which all employees vote. Both these celebration schemes offer a financial reward.”
Having the different levels for recognising and celebrating success we demonstrate to our employees that within our organisation, even the smallest activities and actions do get noticed and they are seen as contributory to the greater good. We have certainly found that the process enriches each team member and builds the right behavioural mentality which we want to differentiate us from our competitors — individuals have a can-do mentality.”
It is clear from these 2 organisations, just how vital it is to celebrate even the smallest successes within the team.
Does it mean that after a win the employee sits back, feet up and thinks ‘I’ve made it?’
No, it boosts moral to keep pushing up the mountain with purpose. Celebration isn't just about reward and recognition – it is a reminder of WHY you do what you do. Watch individual confidence build and positivity energise the team.
