

My four-person executive team carved out two days to meet to review, brainstorm, and update our company’s strategic plan. We started the meeting, like we do in so many planning sessions, by listing out all the victories we’ve enjoyed as a company during the previous quarter.
The list was long and full of things we should have been taking great pride in, which is when I observed something unsettling. As we went round and round the table sharing victories, each of us kept qualifying the victories.
“We completed connecting the video training library up to our client app, of course, we still have to…”
“We had a record month in June in terms of the number of enrollments to the business coaching program, but remember that was because…”
“Our online leads were up 50 percent, but we still have to…”
I realized that this pattern, one played out by so many small business owners reflected two things. First, our fear as business owners is that if we get comfortable with the status quo, we’ll get complacent. And second, our internal drive to get on to the next project, task, improvement or version rushes us right past the progress or accomplishment. It’s as if we don’t even really see the victory because we see all that’s still left to be done.
We consider our to-do list will never be completed and that we just don’t have the luxury of doing our projects as perfectly as we can imagine them potentially in our mind.
You might wonder why this matters, but it does. Your attitude as a leader impacts your entire team. In my work coaching over 1,000 small business owners over the past 20 years, I’ve learned that when you the business owner don’t celebrate your victories, you tacitly deny your team the opportunity to celebrate theirs. This impacts their internal sense of fulfillment, growth, and passion for their jobs.
Teams thrive on making progress; your individual team members want to feel a part of a winning team. Let them see where they and the company are winning. This will translate into a more motivated team with a deeper commitment and sense of purpose in the workplace.
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