Celebrate Milestones with Your Team

Celebrating milestones is an excellent way to energize and engage your team. Done on a regular cadence, this process becomes a ritual-like behavior that connects the team.

A milestone is a significant event for the team or a member of the team. The milestones can be a mixture of team-related accomplishments as well as personal experiences.

Here is a list of examples of milestones that you can celebrate with your team:

• Anniversary of each team member on the team
• Birthdays
• Special occasions (birth of babies, adoption, weddings, buying a house, etc.)
• Promotions
• Completion of a project or event

Taking time to recognize and celebrate these special moments in the lives of your team members demonstrates that you care about them as people. Team members who are bonded with their team are more likely to be engaged and retained. 

Here are some examples of how teams celebrate these special milestones:

• In a plant with 100 employees, they make birthdays a special occasion. The senior leaders visit the location of each employee on their birthday and lead “Happy Birthday” at a designated time. 
• A team that all works remotely, uses the tool X to make virtual cards to celebrate important milestones.
• A team working together in the office goes to lunch or Happy Hour together when special milestones occur.
• A sales team rings a bell when they close a sale.
• An organization gives out swag with the company logo for employment anniversaries at one year and then in five-year intervals. The longer the person has been in the organization, the more valuable the gift.

Think about the milestones you would like to celebrate with your team. Consider the following things as you create your plans:

• Your budget
• The size of the team
• Where your team works – in the office, at home, or hybrid
• The personality of your team
• What would excite and delight them?

An excellent way to create this is to gather a small team who will design and implement this based on feedback from the entire team. Involving others will increase the creativity of ideas and ensure that the celebrations match the expectations and desires of your team.

About the Author: Leigh Ann Rodgers, Founder of Better Teams and the Forward, community, is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator with 20 years of experience in the human development field. Leigh Ann is a skilled meeting facilitator, trainer, and coach working across the globe to help leaders cultivate teams that are happy and high-performing.

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