Why Celebrating Success Is Important For Your Company Culture

As a CEO, you’re probably always thinking about the next step. It's easy to forget to reflect on the successes your business and your employees have achieved. Here’s why you should celebrate them.

Who doesn’t love a little celebration from time to time? Especially in our private lives, we always seem to find a reason to celebrate, whether it is a birthday, a wedding or a house warming.

Celebrations are usually fun, but that’s not the only reason why we celebrate. If you look up ‘to celebrate’ in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, you’ll find: ‘To mark something, such as an anniversary, by festivities or other deviation from routine’. By celebrating an event, we say: this is important, this matters to us. ‍

War on talent ‍

In the workspace, we sometimes tend to forget to celebrate. We all know how easy it is to get caught up in our daily routine and our never ending to-do lists. But just as important celebrations are in our private lives, they should be in the workspace too.

Celebrating success within your company isn’t just about popping champagne every time someone closes a million-dollar deal; it’s about creating a culture that brings out the best in people and in which they feel valued. Especially with the current war on talent in mind, employees expect their workspace to be an inspiring and enjoyable experience. ‍

Small gestures ‍

Still, their hard work isn’t always recognized. In a 2016 Gallup workplace survey, employees indicated they often feel their efforts and contributions are ignored by their CEO or team leader. The results show it’s not money they’re after, most of the time they just desire recognition or acknowledgment.

To boost team morale, it can be great to do something for the entire team after a shared success, like buying a cake or having drinks after work. However, as a CEO, always pay attention to the individuals in your team. Everyone who’s ever received a personal handwritten note or a little gift after an accomplishment knows: it’s small gestures like these that make you feel appreciated. ‍

What you do vs. who you are‍

Important side note: when we talk about employee recognition, we tend to use the words appreciation and recognition interchangeably. While they’re both important, they’re not precisely the same, writes The Harvard Business Review.

Recognition is about receiving positive feedback based on results or performance, like a raise, bonus or an award. Recognition is performance based. Appreciation however, is about your employee’s inherent value regardless of their accomplishment. In short: recognition is about what people do; appreciation is about who they are.

While we should never stop celebrating successes, we should also never stop telling our team members how valuable they are to our company.‍

Further reading:‍

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