Most of us are employed somewhere or part of a team and pushing the limits to prove that we do a good job.
Prove.... to whom? To our boss, to our customer, to ourselves?
The target seems to be secondary. Proving that we did a great job and hoping to get the praise is key.
But what happens, when we succeeded and do not get this praise?
....we lose faith. We lose faith in the believe that we will be judged by the success. We lose faith in the hope to get a raise or accomplishments for our job. In the end we lose faith in the leadership of the company we work for.
Losing faith will lead to the loss of trust and respect.
Praise, trust and respect are important in every human’s life.
If we work hard and don’t get the praise, we start mistrusting, start disrespecting and start alienating ourselves from the group of people we wanted to belong to.
That is the start of the team-breakup.
The first step into team failure.
The duty of every leader is to make sure that every success is celebrated and acknowledged.
Too often the focus is on mistakes and failures. They are pointed out prominently and explicitly while the successes are taken as a given fact.
Focusing on mistakes will lead to more of the same. Focusing on successes on the other hand will move towards more of those.
I would very much encourage more leaders to praise and focus on successes. Make it a big deal. Make it real and something worthy of achieving.
Try it! You will see how it works!