Celebrate your wins in good and bad times. Especially in bad times.
“In everything give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:18
A lesson I learned running HeyOrca, is to celebrate your wins in good and bad times. Especially in bad times.
We’ve made it a culture in HeyOrca to celebrate our wins both big and small. Recently, we made the last Friday of the month - #PodWins Day, where we meet to celebrate our wins and reflect on things that we are grateful for.
At our last #PodWins, we decided to pop champagnes on Zoom to celebrate a big milestone. It was definitely the highlight of the month for me! 🍾🍾🍾
For many of us, we can be our own harshest critics. We take every single perceived failure on the chin and if we are not careful, we risk going into a negative cycle.
I was aware of this tendency of mine so when we started HeyOrca, we made it part of our culture to celebrate all the small wins that come our way. This also made things fun and enjoyable.
Things were going great until they didn’t…
When we started to hit a bumpy phase, I started to feel that the small wins that we had, became less significant as we couldn’t solve our biggest challenge at that time.
In hindsight, I learned that as a leader, I have to celebrate our wins during the good and bad times. Especially in bad times. I have to amplify the highs and cushion the lows.
Amplify The Highs
Cushion The Lows
I am reminded that there are always things that we can celebrate and be grateful for even during bad times. Maybe it’s a great customer review or even a kind gesture from one of our colleagues. These small wins have a huge effect in injecting energy and lifting the morale of everyone.
With that being said, celebrating wins should not be an excuse to sweep uncomfortable things under the rug.
I remember when we were going through a rough patch, there were many problems that were not being addressed. The knock-on effect was that the wins that we were celebrating started to lose their meaning. Although everyone was celebrating wins, no one was addressing the elephant in the room. Because of that, the wins started feeling less meaningful and if I’m honest, sometimes almost forced.
It’s about the journey, not the destination
If I could go back in time, this would be what I would tell my past self “Hey, I know that you think that you don’t deserve to celebrate anything right now, but you and your team need this more than ever. If there was a time to celebrate, now is the most crucial time. Your team needs to know how much you appreciate their hard work and them. BUT don’t tolerate the Elephant in the room. Everyone can see it, and your team will feel so much more confident that you are taking steps in the right direction and that there is a plan to move forward."
Building something that is valuable requires time. Things always take longer. There are more twists and turns that you would not expect. But remember, there is always something to celebrate, always something to be grateful for.
At the end of the day, I think what is most valuable is the journey, not the destination.
I read a quote a couple of weeks ago that reminded me of what made this journey so special.
“Pirates spend years searching for buried treasure only to realize the real treasure was the friendships they made along the way”
We did a “Hot Ones” challenge at our latest #PodWins! 🔥🔥🔥
I am so grateful for the chance of working with so many amazing colleagues every single day and thank God that I get to be on this journey with them.
Remember to always celebrate your wins in good and bad times. Especially in bad times.
Talk soon! 👋