One of the greatest actions you can take as a leader is to celebrate and promote the people within your organization and their wonderful accomplishments. Too often leaders move on to the next initiative, the next goal, the next task, or the next challenge, without planting the flag and saying, “We did it!”

People within your organization need to know that the work they did was good. If we don’t celebrate what we do from time to time, how will people know they are doing the right work? 

Everyone seeks feelings of purpose and fulfillment. When leaders take the time to celebrate an accomplishment they are sending an incredibly important message to everyone in the organization.

Planting the flag is celebrating an accomplishment within your organization. It is a very important type of communication. It tells everyone that they are: on the right track, doing good work, an important contributor to the organization, part of a team, they matter, noticed and recognized, needed, and appreciated.  

Good leaders celebrate big milestones and achievements. Great leaders also celebrate their accomplishments along the way too. Great celebrate the big and the small, the group and the individual. 

Planting the flag should be a crucial part of the culture journey of every organization. Even when you are clearly ‘not where you want to be’ leaders need to let people know they have made some progress, even the smallest percentage of improvement in the desired direction. Planting the flag is valuable feedback, a morale boost, and models excellent behavior in an organization. 

Planting the flag is the opposite of complaining and gossiping. It teaches everyone in your organization to work hard, have fun, and celebrate one another.  

Leadership Challenge: Make a list right where you needed to plant the flag. What accomplishments big or small should you be celebrating?

Here are 6 Ideas for Celebrating Others:

1) Take a “Themsie” and send it to them. There are a lot of selfies being taken, but I think you should take a themsie. Maybe I have coined a new term, but it’s an old school thought. Take a picture of someone, have it printed and mail it to them. Sure you can post it on social media too. That’s great, but there is something magical in a tangible photograph.  I have an app on my phone that allows me to send the picture to a printer, have it laminated and mailed via USPS, with a personal note from me. It’s awesome.

2) Mail them a newspaper clipping.  Yes, this is a really old school method.  I enjoy it when someone shares a post on social media, but getting a positive clipping in the mail is still really cool and classy. My real estate agent and financial advisor both send news clippings when I make the paper. I use to keep a bulletin board of clippings of my students’ successes and sent photocopies home from the paper. (Shares and retweets on social media are pretty awesome too. You can take a screenshot of something great and say, “I see you. Nice job,” in an email.)

3) Make your social media 3:1.  For everything positive post about yourself, post three about others.

4) Personal notes are the best! Everybody loves a handwritten note, or a phone call, or text message remembering them. Experiment with many ways to celebrate others.

5) Nominate them! Nominate people in your organization for their outstanding work. There are all sorts of recognitions and awards available, the truth is most people don’t look for them, and even fewer actually submit. Submit! Even if the person doesn’t win it, just think of how awesome they will feel that you took the time to nominate them. They will feel valued. You can always create your own award too. 

6) Conversation: It never ceases to surprise me how few conversations people have with others at work. Just sitting down with someone and asking a question and pointing out how awesome they do something is an incredible celebration and recognition. It is the most authentic form of celebration you can give.

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

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