Fundamental #14: Celebrate Success

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The 30 Fundamentals that make up the “ConnectSMART Way” describe how we want to run our business – the way we treat our clients, the way we work with each other, and even the way we relate to our vendors and suppliers.  They’re who we are and they’re the foundation of our success.  They drive everything we do, every day. Each week we focus on a different fundamental and discuss in depth.

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Fundamental #14: Celebrate Success

Catching people doing things right is more effective than catching them doing things wrong. Regularly give, receive, and ask for meaningful acknowledgement and appreciation – in all directions throughout the organization.

Everyone loves a celebration, yet we often forget to celebrate each other.  It feels kind of hokey.  Yet, we feel good inside when our hard work is acknowledged.  Even, If we pretend we don’t – everyone needs to be celebrated. Those things we focus on become reinforced and duplicated.  We all have that pavlovian response.

How often we tend to focus on the negative instead of the positive.  We inadvertently reinforce the negative behavior that we don’t want in the first place.  I find that this is a difficult fundamental for me.  I joke about my minimum expectation is perfection.  I assume that everything will be done correctly.  I find it hard to praise people for doing the job they were hired for in the first place.  Yet I realize that this is one of those basic needs that we all have, and not all of us are good at filling it for others.

Sincerely appreciating people and letting them know about it are two different things.  It takes effort, and intention.  It isn’t one of those things that just happens automatically for most of us.  Sometimes we get so involved in our own problems, areas of responsibility, and busyness that we start to think that we are alone.  When we start to get that mentality we not only lose appreciation for others, but we start to find ourselves less effective as well.

Let’s take a breath this week.  Pick up your head, forget about all of your own issues, and look for something that you appreciate from someone else.  I started a little exercise of thinking about at least one thing that I truly appreciate or admire from each one of you.  It is interesting that we just never think about doing that. Don’t give platitudes.  But if you stop and think – intentionally – you may find some of those success to celebrate that you never took to the time to realize.

Let’s celebrate this week together! Celebrate each other. Look for the little things, and take the time to let each other know – It matters!

Best Regards

Dan