The end of school is only a few weeks away and kids are already celebrating. There's also academic awards banquets, music and band concerts and sports banquets for celebrating! I'll be at my grandson’s baseball awards night in a couple of weeks celebrating all of the players' impressive accomplishments.
The weather is turning to summer here in South Carolina. Pools are heating up and kids are ready for summer to start. Parents are ready too. And I'm ready to do a lot of fishing with my grandson!
Well, back to my point. Celebrating!
When was the last time you celebrated something with your team? Has it been weeks? Maybe months? Oh, please tell me it hasn't been years!!!! Do you remember the last time you celebrated something with your team?
Grab a pen and paper. Quickly write down your team’s accomplishments over the past three months. What milestones, large and small, has your team achieved? Depending on the type of work your team is doing, you should be able to come up with 5-25 accomplishments. Not activities…accomplishments. Now, how many of these did you celebrate?
Team celebrations are essential. Celebrations help connect each team member's work with the bigger picture, and put hard work and challenges in perspective. Without celebrations, team members lose sight of just how much progress they’ve made. Most importantly, celebrations reinforce high performance. And, if you want your team to continue their high level of performance, then you must recognize the excellent work that has already been done.
With many projects taking months, if not years to complete, you cannot wait until the end of a project to celebrate. Your team needs to celebrate along the way to stay focused and to infuse energy for the challenges ahead. Besides, many team members involved at the start of a project have moved on to other assignments by the time the project is completed.
Celebrations don't have to be time-consuming or expensive. Many terrific celebrations can be conducted in the workplace, during working hours for about an hour.
Of course, if you do want to celebrate outside of the office then by all means do it. Just assemble your team in a common place, offer up some free food, encourage all team members to participate and then genuinely acknowledge, recognize and express appreciation for what's been accomplished. You and your team will reap huge benefits from this simple celebration!
So, with your list of milestones fresh in your mind, make plans now to have a celebration next week. What are you waiting for?
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