Why Celebrating Wins the Race
I’ve spent most of my career working for “performance-based” companies. So much so, actually, that I’m nearing the point that if I hear upper leadership remind the field that “we are a performance-based company” one more time I might scream. You might be tempted to ask… aren’t all companies concerned with good performance? To some degree, yes – no business wants to do poorly in the big picture. The distinction is that a company that identifies as “performance-based” means they’re a company that is in constant consideration of your personal ability to produce for them and whether they’ll threaten your job over it. It’s not a “fly under the radar” type of place. It’s much closer to a “you’re a lemon and we’re a juicer so if you’re feeling low on juice you better find more juice” type of place.
The people that last in environments like that are often intrinsically motivated to do a good job. They understand the stakes and they don’t want to be associated with anything other than success. These are the kinds of people who go to work and naturally give their all.
When things are good, they’re great. No one asks too many questions about winners. The company only cares about your ability to make it happen, and you did, so you get a high five and get to be on your merry way. When they’re bad, however, it’s like raising your hand to be put under a microscope. Flayed open in bright light under a magnifying glass. It’s the circle of life.
The trouble is the company always wants more. ONLY wants more. The company is on a relentless mission to achieve record numbers, and you can only keep achieving record numbers by being on a constant mission to outdo yourself. It is, quite literally, never enough.
So for obvious reasons employee engagement is a pretty regular topic of conversation.
What do you do when the chips are down? Everything comes in cycles. A roller coaster can only go so high. When your team is on a losing streak, how the company reacts matters at every level of leadership.
For leaders who do give regular feedback, a lot of conversation is negative. There’s a tendency to simply point out what can be done better and leave it at that. It’s usually the case that for companies with performance-based models, upper leadership’s bonus potential is tied to how well their departments produce. When you start costing someone personal money instead of company money, the feedback gets personal too. The conversation ends with a sharp “figure it out regardless of the circumstances” and the day goes on.
Leaders, in general, but especially at companies like these have a massive (and often missed) opportunity to show up for their high performers when the numbers are tough.
Step 1: When things are going well, pause to celebrate individual wins WITHOUT lumping in a discussion of how to keep it going.
If I had a penny for every conversation I’ve had that went, “Great job, now…” or “Great job, let’s keep it rolling” or “Great job, what’s your plan to keep it up” I would be extremely rich. For the love of God, stop your sentence at, “Great job.” You can talk about the next target tomorrow.
When the race doesn’t end, there is immeasurable value in pausing to acknowledge the effort that’s already been put in to achieve winning results. It deserves to be acknowledged separately from asking for more.
Step 1a: When things are going well, pause to celebrate individual wins PRIVATELY.
The driving force of those winning teams needs to know that you see THEM, personally. It’s great to be acknowledged publicly or before your peers, and to some people that may be enough. For the people who can hang in that kind of environment and then catch you completely off guard by bottoming out with no warning, it’s often because there’s a lack of emotional deposit or encouragement that makes them feel seen. Yes, I do mean them in particular.
Saying thank you in a zoom call always muddies the gratitude, because there’s a social reward involved. It can be read many ways. Thank you for making me look good in front of my peers. Thank you for delivering so I get that bonus check this month. Thanks for making it easy on me by just doing what I asked you to do.
Try out a personal call to your winner(s) where you say, “Hey, results from __ were incredible, I know that takes a ton of effort. I just wanted to reach out to let you know I see and appreciate your hard work.” When their legs are tired, your hard worker will grow wings.
Step 1b: When things are going well, pause to celebrate individual wins AT ALL.
I once worked for someone who asked how I was motivated and how I preferred to receive feedback, and I told them words of affirmation was my primary love language and I could handle critical feedback as long as it was laced with some positive acknowledgement as well. That was genuinely the most honest and straightforward answer I could give.
After demonstrating a (verifiable) herculean effort to produce results, things still went poorly, and there was of course some stress. They commented to me it seemed like I was burning out. I told them the job is consuming and it’s difficult to go so long without a win. I told them it doesn’t feel like the effort I do put in isn’t acknowledged or appreciated so it’s difficult not to be discouraged. Sometimes a thank you would be nice. Their response, verbatim, not paraphrased, was, “I’ve just never had to thank someone for doing their job.”
I didn’t work there for very long after that.
Step 2: Acknowledge that sometimes a win is more than a number.
Many behaviors go into producing consistent results. They include things like:
- Late nights
- Difficult conversations
- Someone stepping up when they don’t have to
- Someone learning a new skill
- Small improvements that accumulate over time
Yes, the numbers matter, but it’s the behaviors that you want repeated.
Step 3: When things are going poorly, find small wins and acknowledge them consistently.
I wrote an article here about how positivity is a skill. It’s a particularly useful skill when you’re struggling to come up with silver linings.
It’s unrealistic to think that upper leadership will mope with you when it seems like the world is working against you. It is TOTALLY realistic, however, to know that finding a way to keep their team motivated is a top priority. Ask them to exercise the positivity muscles alongside you. You’ll probably both grow, and that exercise will lead to bonding instead of resentment.
Creating a habit of keeping performance discussion positive ensures that, at the very least, an opportunity for misery to commiserate is eliminated.
The Bottom Line
If you want your team to believe you when you tell them how much you appreciate them, they need to be visible to you during both wins and losses. Being visible during a loss should feel like support more than it feels like punishment.
Performance-based companies create one of two cycles, and sadly it’s often the latter:
Challenge → Effort → Achieve → Recognize → New Challenge
or
Challenge → Achieve → Big Challenge → Bigger Challenge → Bigger Challenge → Burnout
When you create a habit of acknowledging effort over results, you create a culture of engagement.