Celebrate Success!!

Well, it is that time of year again. We finished up our fiscal year with a bang on September 30th, meeting or exceeding all of our milestones. It really is fun to be a part of team that sets the bar high and then does whatever it takes to get over it! We finished the year with total revenue around $1B and countless projects completed for a very satisfied customer base. Wow!

And as we have done in years past, we celebrated! We had a "New Year's Celebration" on October 1st. It was a great chance to review our accomplishments and to recognize some great people who had made success possible. This year, despite being spread over 3 states in dozens of project offices, I think we were able to leverage technology to connect most of the staff. We presented awards to a couple dozen people who worked hard to meet our end of year goals. We had cake and confetti and party favors and music. It was fun. And then I sent people home early. Yea!

The point is, we do need to take time to celebrate. We need to recognize our heroes. We have to reflect on our accomplishments and the great people who make success possible. It meant a lot to our staff and...it meant a lot to me!

Now, the year is not complete. We still need to complete our After Action Reviews (AARs) and document our lessons learned. We are planning on taking key leaders away for strategic discussions in a few weeks and this learning must be factored into our future plans. Regardless of how good we think we are, we can always improve!

So are you celebrating victories with your team? Do you let loose every once in a while to ensure that your teammates know how much you value what they do? Are you having fun? I hope so. That's Leader Business!

Please take some time to visit this month's Leadership Carnival, hosted by Mountain State University. They have gathered together a number of great posts on leadership and I was happy to see them include my discussion on "INTERNS" as part of their collection. Please check them out!