DON'T JUST SIT THERE! WHY CELEBRATING PROGRESS IS CRUCIAL FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS
Devin C. Hughes
Award Winning Keynote Speaker | Best-Selling Author | Leadership Coach | Workplace Culture Muse | Top 200 Global Employee Engagement Thought Leader | Board Member
A growing body of research suggests that the concept of “small wins” in the workplace is one of the key ingredients for successful employee motivation and one of the most effective ways to begin the process of changing your workplace culture. Small wins can have a disproportionate amount of power and influence beyond the achievement they represent.
It’s not just the big victories that are meaningful for people... It’s the little ones, too. And remembering that important fact is crucial to maximizing each person’s potential…
Psychologists Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer interviewed over 600 managers and found a shocking result. 95 percent of managers misunderstood what motivates employees. They thought what motivates employees was making money, getting raises, and bonuses. They listed “supporting progress” as the least important motivator at work, contrary to what all the research suggests! In fact, after analyzing over 12,000 employee diary entries, they discovered that the number one work motivator was emotion, not financial incentive: it’s the feeling of making progress every day toward a meaningful goal.
As Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer further explain further in the Harvard Business Review, making progress toward meaningful goals creates better performance. Subsequently, better performance depends on consistent progress, which enhances the importance of what you do. That’s called the Progress Loop, and, when used correctly, it reveals how important self-reinforcing habits can be.
What are you doing to celebrate/recognize progress on your team?
Please share what you have done with your team.
Executive Assistant At Bepex International LLC
2yFollowing. We usually have a few group parties and company events throughout the year. We publish some of our successes in the company newsletter. Sometimes we reward the salesman with a bottle of champagne for a large purchase order, but not too often. Our CEO is able to stop by and thank people personally for a job well done. Other than that, we don't have anything specific in place to celebrate small successes per se. I'd be interested in hearing what others do.