Admit it: you think you’re too busy to celebrate your success.
How would you even fit it into your schedule? Some of us can barely make time for lunch most days. Plus, there’s just too much at stake. The second you step off the gas and take a moment to appreciate what you’ve accomplished, an opportunity — or a competitor — is sure to pass you by.
No, you’re better off using your time to get work done and to make progress towards one of the million deadlines you’re juggling at once. Even just to answer one… more… email…
In the end, you’re only as good as the next responsibilities you take on, the next problem you solve or the next results you get. That’s what everyone believes, right? Right?!?
Well, maybe not exactly.
Celebrating success is being productive
If you feel like celebrating is a waste of valuable time and resources, you’re not the only one. But it doesn’t make it true. In reality, the practice is far from passive and unproductive.
Research shows that teams whose members actively celebrate achievements — their own, their co-workers’ or the achievements of the group as a whole — are often the highest performing.
Celebrating success is thinking big picture
The pressure to perform at all costs (sometimes self-imposed) is making us forget that we’re working hard towards something. Effort and stress aren’t meant be ends in themselves.
Highlighting important milestones and victories helps make sense of the energy we invest and the sacrifices we make. It gives our work meaning and gives us a sense of purpose.
Celebrating success is looking to the future
Although it feels like it’s about something that happened in the past, a celebration is also always about the future. It’s a way to mark both an end and a new beginning.
If you don’t highlight your team’s highpoints, you may miss an opportunity to set in motion even greater successes. Celebrating even small wins can lead to long-term success.
Celebrating success is setting benchmarks
Another benefit of celebrating success is that it makes it clear to everyone what you, and your team and organization, consider to be worth celebrating — your standard.
It’s the opposite of being satisfied with small progress. It’s your chance to create a bold target you’re all aiming to replicate or, better yet, surpass. A taste of success to come.
Celebrating success is benefiting everyone
Celebrating success doesn’t have to turn into a big party or an award to be worth doing. And it doesn’t have to be for things that the organization as a whole has achieved.
It can be as simple as recognizing a person for their contributions or for going the extra mile. This feedback boosts employee pride and engagement, and inspires them to strive for more.
Celebrating success is sending the right message
The benefits of celebrating success extend passed your own organization and employees. It also lets those in your professional network, your industry know that you are doing well.
Success is contagious. So why wouldn’t you use yours to help create new business opportunities, develop new partnerships or attract the best talent out there?
Celebrating success is what we’re doing November 29th
Don’t be fooled by this celebration-positive article, our team is as guilty as anyone of being “too busy” to celebrate important moments — we wrote the book on it. But not this time.
On November 29, 2018, we’re celebrating the 45th anniversary of Banfield as part of our annual Holiday Happy Hour. So look for your email invitation and join us for a night to remember!