Celebrate to survive and thrive!

Instead, I’m talking about the simply act of celebrating wins! Yes, you read correctly… celebrating wins!

To celebrate is to publicly acknowledge something significant, whatever it may be, with a social gathering or enjoyable activity! Too often, we neither give this much attention nor truly understand its profound importance within our lives!

I strongly believe we have an epidemic on our hands; the vast majority of people tend to focus on what isn’t versus what is. Both at work and at home, this type of behaviour runs rampant. But it doesn’t have to be this way. When we start to examine what’s at stake and begin to realize the power of Celebration, it becomes very clear that life can look very different!

I’m not stating that focusing on what isn’t working is a bad thing. In fact, failing at something is often a very important step towards improving. In many respects, if you aren’t failing, you likely aren’t trying new things and chances are, you’re not reaching your potential (I’ll save this for another blog). However, in too many organizations, the focus is primary geared towards what isn’t versus what is or could be. This over emphasis on failures has a detrimental effect on employee moral, drive and desire to innovate. The fact is, solely focusing on what’s broken is lazy.   Be careful to spot and change that cycle, as it’s contagious.

So why celebrate?

It’s in our DNA to celebrate. Not to mention, it feels awesome and has a similarly contagious reaction. Whether you’re the big celebrating type or not, this applies to you in some way. How would a birthday feel without an acknowledgement? Similarly, how would a wedding, a holiday, a baby’s birth, a lottery win or even a super bowl win feel without a celebration?

Have you ever been in a restaurant when someone suddenly gets down on one knee to propose or when the table next to you sings happy birthday to a child – without even flinching, you either find yourself smiling, clapping or even singing along! That positive energy grips you and before you know it, you’re in a better emotional state!

Try this simply exercise…

Below is a Celebration exercise that I personally guarantee will:

1. Shift your team’s focus to what is versus what isn’t
2. Shift your team’s perspective towards one of possibilities and opportunities
3. Have your team feel better instantly
4. Create an environment of amazement and gratitude

CAUTION: This may cause a high burst of happiness that may lead to a happier & more productive day!

Before starting your next leadership or management meeting, begin by asking the following 3 questions:

1. How are you feeling in your role today? 1-10? Record scores individually.
2. Since we last met, what is something your proud of or something worth celebrating?

• Use a white-board to record all wins.
• Keep asking until the entire board is full even if it’s uncomfortable at the beginning.
• When board is full, ask a team member to read out the wins.
• Encourage team/peer acknowledgements and applaud wins!

3. After that’s complete, repeat question number 1 again.

• Be prepared to be amazed that most individual scores rise at least by 0.5 to 1 notch!

The result is a shift in focus to what is versus what isn’t. It gets the team primed to focus on their success as well as their team’s successes, which ultimately sets them up to win!

At Roma Moulding, we now do our best to celebrate everything; from a new team member joining our team, to the number of culture tours we host. We even track and celebrate the number of champagne bottles popped! Have a look at what we celebrate over here at Roma!

Remember, what you shine a light on only gets brighter!

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