3 Tips to Help Celebrate your Team’s Success

The holiday season offers us a chance to recharge and reboot before beginning to plan the New Year’s goals. The end of year rituals for most organisations includes an office party and 1-1 performance appraisals. However, as many organisations move towards a culture of collaboration, is there something missing?

Are managers missing the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the successes of their team? The office party doesn’t often allow managers to reflect on the team’s success and while appraisals have an integral role in performance management, they are usually conducted individually and based on individual outcomes. Systems of recognition and rewards help maintain a culture of motivation and engagement, however, focusing solely on individual achievements can have a negative impact on the success of the team.

1. Plan an end of year meeting.

We are better at planning new beginnings than taking the time to celebrate endings. The fast pace in many organisations means we regularly hear this from managers. Nevertheless, it is important to meet and look back at the year, to remind your team about the goals that you had set out, to name the goals achieved and exceeded and importantly to recognise individual and team contributions. Keeping the meeting focus positive will help to boost morale for a fresh start in the New Year.

2. Reinforce the team identity for virtual team members.

Many teams have team members who work from different locations. Not everyone on such teams will be able to attend team celebrations or the office party and so it important that the team leader plans a year end meeting taking their needs into account. One of the challenges for virtual teams is that certain team members may have a reduced sense of shared identity and shared context. It is important that the manager recognises the impact that this can have and to facilitate an end of year meeting which highlights the shared purpose of the team and reviews how collaboration was managed effectively despite the challenges of working remotely.

3. Recognise team and individual achievements.

Key to successful teams is reflecting on and recognising individual and team achievements. Successful collaborations within your team or across cross-functional teams need to be named whether they were a dynamic duo or fantastic four. A bold suggestion to help companies demonstrate that they are serious about teamwork is to have a 50/50 split in compensation recognition, rewards and bonuses between individuals and teams. While this is radical there is a need in many organisations to put structures in place to support the development of a truly collaborative culture.

Best wishes from us in OMT Global for your end of year celebrations and new beginnings in 2023.