For the past couple of weeks, I have been talking about celebrating success in your personal life and at the office. I’m guessing you have some questions like: ‘Will this really benefit me? Will this really benefit those in my company?’ 

Yes. Absolutely!  The act of celebrating gives you tangible, positive feedback and fulfills the human need for achievement, recognition, and self-esteem.

Celebrating combats feelings of unworthiness and the negativity that permeates our culture.

Celebrating shows appreciation and builds mutual respect, and bonds them as a team. 

Change management is one of the toughest challenges a leader will face. Get it right, and the rewards are big. Get it wrong, and you may find yourself the subject of a negative management case study. 

Appointed in 2012 to turn the ailing Yahoo around, CEO Marissa Mayer is often cited as an example of how not to handle change.

Employees reported low morale and disenchantment over the way in which change was handled – on one occasion, being told that there would be no more job losses, only to have more cuts announced just weeks later. 

Streamlining is sometimes unavoidable, but for Yahoo, the atmosphere of uncertainty – and lack of a positive change strategy – resulted in more than a third of the company’s workforce leaving for other jobs. 

Change does not happen overnight, but if employees see no visible benefits, dissatisfaction and fear set in.

To avoid corporate brain drain during a period of change, leaders should focus on celebrating the small wins – a new contract, positive customer feedback, or savings being made – so employees can appreciate the real-time benefits of large-scale organizational change.

Do not simply rejoice; reward too: whether it is recognizing the employee of the month with a personalized thank-you in the company newsletter or taking the sales team out for a meal following an increase in revenue. 

Achieving a healthy workplace culture is essential to running a successful business. According to HR leaders, it is also the number-one challenge in attracting and retaining the best talent. As a business leader, office culture begins with you.

Listening with intent, talking with authenticity, and acting with integrity will give your employees a safe place to be creative and take risks. Rewarding excellence and explaining change will bring the team together for the cause.

But the most motivating thing is being able to see progress and success. 

Professor Teresa Anabile, in her study of 12,000 blue- and white-collar workers found that the forward progression, or wins, was the thing that motivated workers to keep going day after day.

It did not even matter how big or small the victories were, just that they were happening on a regular basis. Not even material rewards were as motivating as forward progress. Recognizing the wins and how well things are going is vital to your team’s continued success.  

Developing this habit of celebration opens the pathway to future progress and stops self-limiting beliefs from taking root.  Celebration allows for the downtime needed to reenergize and renew our batteries while leaving a positive imprint on the subconscious. 

Writing down the celebrations crystallizes them, creating a living document, one that we can share and return to when needed.

Do not wait another moment! Stop what you are doing, carve out time and begin writing down the successes you have had in the last month, the last week, and the last day. Do it today, and then do not stop celebrating. Get into the habit, and suddenly you will find that the journey to achieving your goals is paved with confetti!