Before we know it, Christmas will be here and gone, and then we’ll enter the dog days of winter. It’s important to have a plan to motivate your workers before they officially return from the holidays. Helping employees meet the new year with energy and motivation can be the tipping point for a productive quarter.

Change is hard. Whether at work or facing change personally, when we face something different, many insecurities and frustrations may arise.

Short-term wins boost morale and motivation, enhance team cohesion, and encourage continuous improvement.

How to Celebrate Short-Term Wins Effectively?

  1. Acknowledge Publicly: Recognize achievements in team meetings, emails, or announcements. 
  2. Personalize Recognition: What type of recognition motivates your team? Some might prefer a handwritten note over public praise.
  3. Make it Timely: Celebrate the win as soon as possible, as we want to reinforce the connection between effort and reward.
  4. Incorporate Fun: Anchoring fun into celebrations will help us feel good and want to create more wins.
  5. Set Clear Milestones: Define short-term wins. This can help create parameters around celebrating these wins.

When we celebrate short-term wins at work, we create a formula for long-term growth, boosting prosperity in individual morale, team effectiveness, and organizational success. This is a topic that we often discuss in the DBA program’s Organizational Performance and Change concentration class, Leading Transformation and Change.