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Time to Celebrate

The first part of the year is typically a great time for planning. The mentality is there — new year, fresh start.

I, like a lot of people, love planning and strategy work at the start of the year. January is quiet, people are on leave and there is less pressure. For a lot of us, this time also feels like the perfect time for annual goal setting and planning.

But this is not about how to set goals or annual planning. Instead, I want to talk about what celebration looks like for ourselves and our teams. And no, I don’t mean Christmas parties. That is a great celebration of a hard year of work, but it only comes once a year. I am also not convinced that everyone wants to go to their staff Christmas party, or that everyone has a good time there.

The type of celebration that I am talking about is much more meaningful, consistent and tailored than just one end of year party.

Celebrate Goals

In marketing, we set goals and objectives. I always say that you can’t reach a goal if you don’t set a goal. And it is important to celebrate the team for reaching these goals. Whether it is launching a new campaign, hitting sales targets or adhering to budget frameworks. It does not matter what the team objective was — it is important to recognise and reward the team who made that happen.

Our brains are wired to be motivated by reward. While recognition can come in many different forms, what is consistent is that our brain will want to achieve more if it is rewarded regularly. This is why it is so important for our team motivation and overall satisfaction at work to be recognised frequently, at the right moment and in the right way.

A simple example of a reward I give myself in my work is when I am marking assignments in my job as a university tutor. I work out how many assignments I need to mark each day to be completed by the deadline. Once I mark the daily number, I eat some chocolate. And for me, knowing what I enjoy, it works really well.

This works for me because I am working on a solo project that is heavily deadline driven. And of course most people are not necessarily getting recognised with chocolate in the workplace. But there are two things to take from this example:

  1. The recognition is tailored to me

The key to success here is knowing the particular motivators for the team and how to translate these into specific recognition moments.

When recognising team members for doing a great job, often our first thought might be to call out someone’s contribution at the start of a team meeting or in a project debrief. However not everyone enjoys public recognition in front of others. It is important to take the time to understand how each person in your team prefers to be recognised. It might be the public shout-out in a team meeting, but it could also be:

    • Recognition in a team email
    • A private thank you email
    • Taking a coffee break to recognise that person in a one-on-one situation

    The key to success here is that the gesture feels genuine and tailored to the individual.

    So how do you work out if someone wants a public shout out vs a private thank you? To start with, you can simply ask “How do you like to be thanked?”. If this feels too direct, you could ask “What makes you feel successful in your job and career?”

    Also take some time just to observe the behaviours of your team — do they show pride if called out in a team meeting or look like they would rather be somewhere else. If someone congratulates a peer in person, there is a good chance that they would want to be congratulated in person too. Keep your eyes open to how your team responds to different types of recognition.

    2. I get the recognition straight away

    Recognition is most impactful when it’s given promptly and linked to a specific action or outcome. For example, instead of saying, “Great job” it could be “Thank you for putting in the extra effort to finalize the report. Your attention to detail saved us a lot of time.”

    If you leave it too long or leave the recognition too vague then you have lost the impact.

    Celebrate Outcomes

    I said at the start that it is important to celebrate achieving the goals. However it is equally important to celebrate the outcomes too. There is a difference here between outcomes and goals. If we have a strong vision, with the right team and a sound plan to deliver on our objectives, what we need to celebrate is that we worked through that process and delivered the best we could — even if things don’t work out or unexpected things come up. Don’t forget to celebrate the process and execution.

    Celebrate People

    When creating time for recognition don’t forget the people that make up the team. We can get so focused on the “what” — the deadlines and deliverables — that sometimes we can forget about the “who”. And celebration is all about our people.

    Real recognition isn’t just a check box or an automated HR notification. Recognition of our team allows us to pause and acknowledge the heart of the operation: the people. When someone shows up day after day with genuine commitment, they aren’t just doing a job — they are weaving the fabric of the company culture.

    It can be easy to think that celebrating excellence only happens when we reach our annual targets. But the reality is much simpler. Exceptional work is created when people feel respected and empowered to do their best. When we recognise our team, we aren’t just celebrating achieving team goals — we are celebrating what makes the work worth doing in the first place.