Celebrating Success
Let’s cut to the chase. I’m not going to lament about the stresses and strains of leading nonprofit organizations. I’m sure each of you have good awareness about those! Themes we have been hearing from our Leader’s Circle include:
Many of the stresses and strains are common to all nonprofit leaders (and sometimes exacerbated towards the end of the calendar year)
Sharing and talking about these stresses and strains with peers helps significantly
Celebrating success has a dramatic and positive effect on morale, motivation, and wellness
This blog post is all about the third theme: The importance of CELEBRATING SUCCESS! Depending on your mission, “success” may look very different from one organization to another - but that is the wonderful thing: Celebrating the successes of your organization brings into focus the unique strengths of your team and community.
Our recommendation: Build time into your staff, board, and volunteer meetings to recognize and celebrate success. Here are some ideas on how to integrate the practice of celebrating achievements:
Include “Celebrating Success” as a discussion item on meeting agendas, with a good allocation of time. BUT:
Not as an icebreaker (often either seen as being superficial of missed as people settle into the meeting)
Not as the last agenda item. All too often, the most important discussion items are placed last on agendas - and therefore discussions are either hurried or delayed.
Make a deliberate point of emphasizing the “Celebrate Success” agenda item when you distribute the agenda. Ask participants to come prepared with a specific story to help celebrate the organization’s successes.
Ask meeting participants to share the successes they have thought of with the rest of the group. To develop the discussion you could also ask:
How would you like to celebrate this success?
What kind of successes are you hoping to achieve next year?
What support would you like/do you need from the team?
Recognizing and celebrating successes creates a wave of positivism which can have a profound impact on your organization’s culture. Celebrating success gives people permission to enjoy and share their positive emotions and these will spread throughout your organization much in the way that a stone thrown into a lake creates its own radiating power.