“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”  Amy Poehler 

People are our greatest asset. So much more can be achieved when we work together than we ever could alone. Whether you work with your team face to face or via distance, across the country or around the world, taking time to come together and celebrate is a must. Sadly, this doesn’t happen often enough and team members can be left feeling disrespected and undervalued. So, here are 5 ways you can celebrate with your team and boost morale at the same time. It’s a win win for everyone!

1. Reflect on Your Team’s Successes – Recognise your team’s achievements – big and small.  Mention them in a newsletter, share about it in your end of year speech of thanks to staff or host a special morning tea and share credit and give recognition to all that have contributed to the success.
2. Send a Personal Note of Thanks – This works just fine either by snail mail or email. I have a colleague who sends an email of thanks to someone in his network every morning when he boots up his computer for the day. It works!
3. Offer an Incentive – A great motivation when the going gets tough. Incentive the team not the individual. This sees them work better together and help each other along the way resulting in a much more effective team out. An incentive could be a team lunch or night out, a half day extra off prior to the Summer break etc.    
4. Have A Shared Lunch – A shared lunch paid for by the business is always going to be a winner. If you all work in the same office, set the date and time well ahead so that everyone can be there. And shared lunches work just as well virtually – again set the date and time, arrange for Uber eats to deliver and then open the ZOOM room! A shared paddock or tractor cab lunch works too!
5. Help People to Accept Praise – Have you ever seen someone offered thanks or given praise only to hear them respond immediately with “no thanks needed” or “it was nothing”? It’s important to help people understand the value they bring to the team / project etc. Ultimately this goes a long way to building morale and resilience, and overtime, reducing burnout.

I’d love you to plan one of these over the next few weeks and offer your team a morale boost at the same time. Plan it well based on the needs and interests of your team. Let me know how it goes for you and if you choose to use a different way to these 5, I’d be grateful if you could let me know.

Please reach out here.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.