Listen on:
.svg)
Importance of celebrating wins and ways to acknowledge them
.png)
Entrepreneurial journeys are filled with ups and downs, but it is important to celebrate the successes and reflect on the challenges.
Defining a win can be specific to the founder or startup, but can include acquiring new clients and achieving revenue targets. Every startup will also grow through different milestones, including company anniversaries and new hires. Meanwhile setbacks can include funding challenges or hiring and retaining employees.
By taking the time to acknowledge and celebrate achievements, amidst the challenges, not only instils a sense of purpose in team members to pursue goals but also demonstrates an important part of a startup’s progress.
This article looks at the importance of celebrating wins, how they can be celebrated and how successes and failures can be intertwined. We also share insights from Felix Atkin, the founder and CEO of Sharesy.
Below we discuss several key reasons why startups must celebrate wins – however big or small – and the benefits this can bring to the business and team:
Acknowledging company wins are an important part of any business or personal growth strategy. By reflecting on what a startup has achieved can help evaluate the contributions of team members or the financial performance which will drive business growth.
Celebrating a win can help create momentum and keep people motivated to continue working towards to their goals.
According to 2022 research, being motivated at work helps to develop organisations, as it increases employee’s productivity and ensures their working strategy is effective.
Celebrating wins can also help keep everyone focused on the long-term targets and goals. Understanding that all the individual pieces of the puzzle – made up by the unique contributions of everyone in the team – builds the bigger picture of the startup’s success.
If multiple wins occur simultaneously, it is important to reflect on the goals that have been achieved and how each of them made an impact both in the short and long term.
Felix Atkin discussed:
“If you achieve a goal, you might stop and think about that goal and feel really good about that. But in fact, you just look up to the next goal. And in a startup, things are growing so fast and the expectations just increase and increase that you never really get a chance to stop and take a breath.”
Acknowledging wins provide employees with a sense of recognition and appreciation for their hard work and efforts. This recognition can be company wide or focus on individual contributions. By recognising these efforts can encourage loyalty to the company which will ultimately lead to higher retention rates.
Gallups’ “From Application to Equity” report showed that recognition can also foster an inclusive environment, and play a part in protecting the workforce against burnout and reduce turnover.
As Felix mentions about Sharesy:
“When you have a really great month everybody can fall part of that, that's really exciting as well. So just those moments, we don't always stop to really think about those and to celebrate them, but we should do more of that.”
No matter how big or small a win may seem, celebrating them can significantly impact employee morale and productivity. If an employee feels valued in the work they are doing, it will have a positive effect on their morale and engagement. Gallup demonstrated highly engaged employees have lower absenteeism rates and there are noticeable differences in their productivity.
Motivated employees will be more likely to pursue every opportunity to achieve their goals which will lead to a positive work environment.
Celebrating wins as a founder also increases intrinsic motivations – the drive to pursue goals for individual and business growth. It can also enhance self-efficacy which enhances belief in one's own abilities. This can help empower the team and ensure they are taking actionable steps to achieve goals.
Making a point to celebrate company, team, or individual wins should be built into the culture. This helps energise the workforce and create a culture of celebration.
Team wins foster collaboration as it allows members to recognise their successes and efforts and feel a sense of purpose. Having shared accomplishment is invaluable for startups so that teams can continue to strive for success.
When celebrating wins, founders should take time to reflect on what went well and what did not go as planned. This can help identify possible weaknesses and build out new strategies.
Celebrating a team’s inputs can help determine their outputs – fostering a culture of innovation and creativity.
To make a celebration meaningful and memorable it is important to share the success with all parties that were involved as well as the wider network of partners, customers, mentors, or friends.
Possible ways that startups can celebrate wins, include:
Sharsey shares some of the ways they have celebrated company wins:
“We have had some great offsite moments where we've been together. We hired a manor house for a couple of days and spent some time together doing some strategy thinking.”
"We have alerts [on Slack] that everybody can celebrate [wins]. A small way that we can keep people close together.”
Reflecting on the successes and failures of the business can help focus on strengths and carve out the areas for improvement. Celebrating achievements is an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the hard work and innovation that led to a particular win or milestone. It also offers valuable insights that can be used to enhance other areas of work.
Startups may encounter setbacks during their entrepreneurial process. However, rather than viewing failures as roadblocks, celebrating the lessons learned from them is essential to growth and development.
By creating an environment where wins are celebrated and learning is embraced, team members will feel empowered to share their knowledge and experiences. Intertwining celebration and learning, startups can create a culture of continuous motivation and sustained success.
