When I talk to leaders, I hear over and over that we should be celebrating our wins, but why IS it so important? Celebrating wins is commonly used to motivate the team; however when talking to knowledge workers it doesn’t always seem to have the intended impact. Why is that?
Celebrating wins isn’t just about recognizing that we passed a milestone but more about how people contributed to that milestone and how that milestone fits into the bigger picture.
When working on big projects or creating something from scratch usually the team faces many challenges. Often time, the team may work months or quarters to deliver some thing tangible. At the ground level, this may seem like a never ended slosh as the next deadline or milestone seems imminent.
Celebrating wins is most effective when it’s first focused on the people. When done right, it triggers intrinsic motivation by providing recognition to the team involved. This starts, and perpetuates, the feedback loop – if people work hard and get positive feedback for their efforts, they’ll continue to do so in hopes that they’ll keep getting that reward, thus perpetuating the cycle. In some cases they may care about the validation from their peers and leaders over the overall impact of their efforts.
Second, the most impactful way for a team to push forward and endure a long challenge is to make small progress that they can see. That reward triggers the team to move forward. When the team is spread too thin across multiple projects, they ultimately make less progress and more likely to give up or lose motivation. If the team feels like they’re moving in the right direction, they’ll continue to push forward. It’s often hard for some team members to see how hitting a milestone contributes to the organization as a whole – providing that context is important.
So next time you celebrate a win, focus on 1) people contributions and 2) how they’re making progress in the right direction towards the goal, and 3) continue to keep the team focused on the most impactful initiatives that are aligned with that goal.
