Celebrating Success
Why it matters more now than ever and ways to do it
Over the last 18 months I’ve been working closely with a senior leadership team of a fast-growing organisation in the energy sector, as their management and leadership consultant and leadership coach. It has been an incredible journey to go on with the team, both in terms of my own learning and watching their personal growth and team growth. Last week we marked the close of the 18-month programme with a mini celebration of certificates (virtual of course!) and individual and team reflections. All the managers referenced how if it wasn’t for the training over the 12 months prior to COVID-19 lockdown, they never would have faced the VUCA* situation we find ourselves in as resiliently as they have now. They would never had responded to the pandemic with the strategic-mindedness, innovation and emotional control (well at least most of the time – we all have our moments!) that they have done.
The team fed back that the 1:1 coaching and team coaching over the past six months has also made them stronger, more unified and better able to lead. I couldn’t have been prouder – my ‘developing others’ strength was singing with joy and my ‘social intelligence’ and ‘love’ strengths were bursting with dignity. And now my ‘creativity’ and ‘curiosity’ strengths can’t wait for the next year of the new programme of 1:1 and tam coaching that we have just contracted for to begin again now. Who knows what the year ahead holds, but what I do know is that our collective positive leadership will magnify regardless in the year of reflection and development to come.
This isn’t to say that it hasn’t been an incredibly difficult six months for all – it has. They have had to put friends and colleagues, and even one of their team self-selectingly on Furlough to safeguard the company; and sadly had to say goodbye to a number of colleagues as the pandemic re-shaped the direction and services of the company.
What stood out to me again in our celebration of development last week is how often we forget to stop to reflect and celebrate, and even more so in difficult times. The affirmative bias and negativity bias we carry as human beings – which means we have a predisposition psychologically to focus on the negative and not the positive – means we jump from one problem to the next without reflecting on how we surmounted the last challenge. This has two drawbacks: 1. We forget to reflect on what we did to get ourselves to succeed and therefore miss the opportunity to ingrain this new learning into our behaviour and make this new behaviour more second nature; and 2. We do not savour the ‘achievement’ and let it sink into our psyche that success is a regular patter for us, regardless of circumstance. Looking at all wellbeing theories, motivation and confidence research, acknowledging your ‘achievements’ is core to your being able to build on this success, your wellbeing, and to grow, develop and rise again in challenging times.
Notably on a grey rainy day, we can forget all the goodness, sunshine and positivity that we have experienced and not bottled. And on an enduring roller-coaster of a pandemic, stopping to get off every now and again, look back and around and forward, and to pat yourself and colleagues on the back for getting this far in the ride - however bumpy - is more important psychologically than ever. Make sure you and you team stop to do this for a quick and enduring win.
Putting ‘celebrating successes’ into practice:
When? Picking the moment is important but we can get hung up on this. The trick is little and often and habitually, some of the patterns of celebrating might include:
At the end of the day, every day
At the end of the week
Monthly
Quarterly and annually
The trick is not to get too habitualised in the pattern, but to shake it up and sometimes even to be spontaneous.
How?
Mindfulness – taking a moment to sit in quiet and focus on the present.
Journaling – taking a moment to write down, what has gone well?
Capturing – newsletters, bulletins, blogs – taking a moment to share with others what has gone well
Savouring – taking an extra moment to luxuriate in the success, through photos or discussion, and taking an extra moment to relive the success that has past and taking note of it at all angles
Strengths spotting – say what you see, don’t keep the strengths and good you have noticed in yourselves and colleagues and friends around you locked up in your mind
Sticky notes – a fleeting ‘thank you, that was great’ or ‘well done, I noticed that success’ can be just the tonic for somebody stuck in the grip of current problems; the person needing to get a more positive perspective to energise them for the current or next hurdle they are facing.
*VUCA = volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous