Taking a moment to reflect on what you have accomplished. Celebrating successes together with your team. Whether you have won a new customer or achieved a personal goal. Unfortunately we still do this too little, while it can give a lot of energy. The need for appreciation, recognition and respect is something that comes naturally to us. And you too want to be heard, seen and taken seriously. Is this need fulfilled? Then that contributes enormously to your self-confidence and (not unimportantly) to achieving new goals. But where does this need actually come from? And what does celebrating successes bring? Dr. Alex Klein conducted research into the setting and achievement of goals .
Good luck
Earlier, Alex Klein told us that you can achieve goals when you do what you need to do and that it is good to set a maximum of five goals. Suppose you have followed these rules. You know what you need to do and actually do it. But does that make you successful? "Success is quickly linked to prosperity, well-being and prosperity. For example, to having a big car, a nice house or lots of money. I personally think that is too simple a translation of being successful. In fact, there are examples where success is achieved, but where no financial improvement is linked. After all, a reward really does not always have to be financial. Another perspective of being successful is about winning. If you win you are successful, but do you have to win to be successful? No, that too is a bit short-sighted as far as I'm concerned. But when are you successful? And then when can you start celebrating those successes? Let's turn it around: when are you not successful? You are not successful if you have not achieved your goal. Turn it back around: you are successful when you achieve what you want to achieve. That's the definition of being successful as far as I'm concerned."
Celebrating successes and salary as a reward
All right, so you can only set a maximum of five goals, you know what to do, and you actually do it. You achieve your goals and are successful. But that doesn't get you there. One of the most important elements comes after that: celebrating and rewarding successes. As we mentioned earlier, several studies show that salary is no longer the most important thing for many employees to work for. Klein: "Salary is the compensation for regular work. From this work daily work comes results that you have to achieve. But salary is not a good source for achieving extraordinary results based on extraordinary behaviors. Salary alone will be perceived by many employees as a minimum requirement for performing minimum required behaviors, that is, your daily work." Rewarding beyond salary is therefore ever important to many employees; it energizes them and motivates them to keep going again. But what exactly does rewarding entail?
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Celebrating and rewarding successes
Klein: "A reward should be a token of appreciation for something extraordinary, so otherwise it becomes ordinary again. Extra salary is just a reward and getting salary is not perceived as an extra." But then comes the question: when is a financial extra big enough to be extraordinary? And does that reward necessarily have to be financial? No, is Klein's answer.
"Celebrating success can be done in a thousand and one ways, provided it is perceived by the recipient as a token of genuine appreciation. A cake, a bunch of flowers, a weekend away, an afternoon off ... anything can be experienced as appreciation and reward for the effort shown. The only condition: celebrating successes and the reward must be experienced as genuine appreciation, otherwise celebrating successes and rewarding is pointless," Klein says. "And if the recipient of the reward doesn't experience it as genuine appreciation for the work done, then celebrating successes, even for organizations, doesn't achieve anything at all. If the reward is felt as genuine appreciation? Then the motivation to continue with the right behaviors will be high."
For managers
Celebrating successes and rewards are about seeing extraordinary behaviors that have led to extraordinary results. "The clean task for managers is to be mindful of extraordinary behaviors. It is precisely those behaviors that should be rewarded with genuine attention and genuine appreciation. See the individual employee and know whether they are making extraordinary efforts to achieve extraordinary results." Only then does a reward truly become a celebration.