Workplace Culture Check-ins
How to: Celebrate Success at Work in a Small Team
Because the scoreboard shouldn't only live in your head.
Picture the end of a really good month. You've checked the numbers, and you might have done a little happy dance in the kitchen.
Meanwhile your team went home on Friday with no idea it had been a good month at all.
It happens in small businesses all the time, and it's almost never on purpose. You see the wins first, because you're the one looking at the bank account and reading the Google reviews as they come in. Unless you pass that on, it stays with you.
Welcome to post three of our workplace culture check-in series! We've covered purpose and opportunity, and now we're onto success, which might just be the fun one.
What success looks like when there are four of you
O.C. Tanner's 2024 Global Culture Report calls success "the thrill of accomplishment". It says people need to find it in their own work, as a team and as a business - and that it should be publicly celebrated.
In a small team, that could be your apprentice finishing their first job solo and sending you a very proud photo of it. It could be a team win, like getting through the Christmas rush without anyone crying in the cool room. And at the business level, it's hitting the goal you've been chasing all year... which your team may or may not know about.
Of all six Talent Magnets, success had the strongest link to people experiencing change at work as a positive thing, with 530% higher odds.
Change is basically the weather in small business. Prices go up. The booking system updates itself overnight and moves every button. I reckon a team that's used to winning together is in a much better headspace to roll with all that.
How to celebrate success with your team
Share the scoreboard
How can your team feel like they're winning if they don't know what winning looks like? You don't have to open the books to everyone, but you can share this month's goal, or how many five-star reviews came in.
Share the tough months too. People who are kept in the loop about the challenges their workplace is facing have 146% higher odds of seeing themselves as able to adapt and bounce back. And they can't help solve a problem nobody's told them about.
(Yes, I'm about to suggest a whiteboard. A whiteboard in the back room with this month's goal on it is a system, and I will take any excuse to build a system.)
Celebrate the attempt as well as the result
One of my favourite bits of the whole report is from Tata Group, who run an innovation award with a category called "Dare to Try". It celebrates great ideas that didn't completely work. Their chairman puts it like this: "I know innovation is about winning, but more importantly it's about trying."
In your business, that might be the new window display that didn't quite land, or the email someone wrote to win back an old client who never replied. If the only thing that ever gets celebrated is a perfect result, why would anyone stick their neck out?
Make it a team win
In the purpose post I suggested passing great customer feedback on to the people who made it happen. This is the bigger version: when the whole team pulls something off, say so in front of the whole team, wherever your lot actually pay attention (the group chat counts). And make sure everyone gets a slice - the casual who kept the dishes moving during the rush is part of the win too.
Practical steps you can take this week
Put one number on the wall
that belongs to the team. It doesn't have to be a business goal at all (it's more fun if it isn't!). Pick something small and a bit silly that happens far too often, like "days since someone left the milk jug out" or "days in a row the Saturday crew got the float right first go". Just make sure it's something they can change themselves, without waiting on you. Stick it up where everyone can see it and let them keep the count. When the streak breaks there'll be a collective groan, then someone wipes it back to zero and off they go again. (Bonus points if they come up with their own way to celebrate beating the record.)
Start a wins round
at your next team meeting (or over the first coffee of the week). Ask "what went well last week?" and let them answer before you jump in.
Tell them when it was a good month
If it was a bloody good month, say so! Then tell them who helped make it happen, and how.
Thank someone for having a crack
Think of something someone tried recently that didn't quite work out. Thank them for having a go, and tell them what was good about it. Maybe the idea was a clever one that just needs a tweak, or maybe the best bit is simply that they were brave enough to try something new. Either way, say it out loud. Every time you do, you'll get more of your team willing to have a crack.
The bottom line
Celebrating success can be as simple as one sentence at Monday's huddle: "We smashed it this month, and here's what you did that helped." Thirty seconds, tops. And if there's a whiteboard with the number on it, even better (sorry, I had to).
Next in our workplace culture check-in series: How to show your team appreciation that actually lands.