Being an entrepreneur can sometimes be difficult – it is often a long journey with many bumps. On the way though, you will likely have many small successes – this article explores why it is important for you and your team to celebrate the mini achievements – no matter how small.
Benefits of celebrating small wins
Increase team morale: Allows you to express how grateful you are
It can be important to illustrate how grateful you are to members of your team. There are set times when it is possible to express this – for example, holidays and the annual review process. Achievements within the organizations are another occurrence – when the firm succeeds in an accomplishment it can be a morale boost to share the achievement, rather than to let it go without any acknowledgment.
Helps emphasize that progress is through mini-stages
Success as an entrepreneur accumulates over time, made of many small steps rather than one big one. Celebrating the min-steps can help illustrate this – helping individuals see the graduate accumulation of progress over time.
Avoiding entrepreneurial burnout
A final benefit of celebrating the small successes is that it may reduce entrepreneurial burnout. Launching and growing a firm is a long-term effort – there is no ‘end’ and even launching the firm may take many years to achieve. Celebrating the small wins can help avoid it feeling like a never-ending slog – while the ultimate objective may be far away, there are steps of achievements along the process. At each stage, the mini-victory is in sight, rather than a very distant goal that at times can feel unachievably far.
Examples of small wins that can be celebrated
- Development progress: What are the key developmental milestones that you are working towards, or bugs that you have been working to iron out.
- Records on your key performance indicators: Are there performance metrics that are the highest it has ever been? If you have many metrics that you are measuring, there most likely will be some that are higher than their historical maximum.
- New sales: If you take on a new client, or gain a large order, make sure to celebrate the development
It can be useful to consider the broad range of progress that can be made. This will help you avoid becoming overly focused on any particular dimension, and in larger firms help ensure that all members of the company feel valued – ultimately it is not just the sales team that should have opportunities to feel success.
Final thoughts: Rewarding successes
Of course, when you are celebrating success you may consider rewarding achievements – potentially with finance or other forms of compensation. While this can be good for motivation, it can also drive some dysfunctional behaviors – read more about considerations associated with rewarding goal attainment.
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