Why You Should Reestablish and Celebrate Team Wins
The end of the year is rapidly approaching, and you’re likely planning for what’s ahead. That said, I encourage you to take a moment to celebrate what you and your team have accomplished in 2023, and set an intention for more frequent acknowledgement in 2024. Recognition is a critical leadership tool that goes a long way in boosting productivity, morale, and retention. However, for a variety of reasons, celebrating success often happens infrequently or not at all.
Recently, I led an executive team offsite where the participants shared that they missed the inspiring, purposeful, “OG culture” of the firm, which they wanted to reinvigorate. These C-Suite leaders came to the realization that given the nature of the business, the company had come to limit celebrations to milestone project wins that occurred every year and a half.
Over 20 years ago, a physical bell was hung in the office for the exact purpose of celebrating small milestones, and this acknowledgement occurred weekly during the decades that followed. The person who previously championed “the bell” retired a couple of years ago, and with her departure, so did the commitment to recognition. Morale — for both employees and leadership — was suffering.
Recognition leads to big results
Research has repeatedly shown the power of acknowledging wins and accomplishments. In Gallup and WorkHuman’s recent report, Empowering Workplace Culture Through Recognition, participants who strongly agree with “I feel connected to my organization's culture” are 3.7 times as likely to be engaged at work and 68% less likely to feel burned out. According to Deloitte, recognition is highly correlated with improving employee engagement, which is known to improve job performance. Employee engagement, productivity, and performance are 14% higher in organizations with recognition programs than those without.
Conversely, a report by Great Place to Work showed that workers who don’t feel recognized struggle to describe what makes their workplace great. When asked what would make their company better, the employees who felt unrecognized responded with phrases that indicated feelings of unfair treatment and a manipulative work environment. Phrases like “rampant favoritism” and “scare tactics” were common among these respondents. With many organizations struggling to retain talented employees, leaders can’t afford to let their team feel unappreciated.
Ask Yourself: What would shift for your team if you created more space for recognition and celebration of achievements? What would it take for you to commit to trying out a new approach?
Creating a culture of recognition
Don’t wait until next year to begin recognizing and celebrating your team’s wins and learnings — use this exercise at your next team meeting! The objective is to create more awareness around your team’s progress, as a group and as individuals. Here’s how to get started.
Before the meeting, ask the group to consider these two questions: In 2023, what are they most proud of? What was their biggest lesson?
In the meeting, prompt your team to share their answers with the group. If your team seems hesitant to speak up, start by modeling the exercise yourself.
Once everyone has spoken, ask the team to share what achievements or small wins they have noticed from other team members that those individuals might not see in themselves.
This “low stakes” exercise is a small way to help your team members become more comfortable recognizing themselves and others. The more often you and your team celebrate the progress all of you have made, the easier it will become, and the closer you’ll be to a more engaged, motivated team.
“If you don't create a great, rewarding place for people to work, they won't do great work.” - Ari Weinzweig