
How to Celebrate the Small Wins in a Startup - davesuperman
https://medium.dave-bailey.com/how-to-celebrate-the-small-wins-4a03004a1816
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wjossey
I’m rounding the corner on two years at the startup I co-founded. For context,
I do all the tech, my co-founder (also tech guy) does sales, BD, and all the
“run the business” tasks, and our one full time employee does talent
development for our customers. We raised a pre-seed round in July of 2017.

We’re fortunate in that we have had meaningful revenue from new customers
every few months, so closing deals is a clear “moment to feel good.” However,
I don’t think those “highs” are actually how we tend to celebrate most
commonly between the three of us.

Our first hire had a tendency to say to each of us, at random different
moments of gratitude, “I appreciate you.” That sentence is so powerful and
celebratory, we’ve integrated it into our common language between one another.

When my co-founder is slogging through b.s. state paperwork for benefits, a
simple: “I appreciate you” goes a long way. Because him getting over that
hurdle IS a WIN, it just feels like Chinese water torture in the moment.

Give it a try sometime with a team member who just gave you a great code
review, or your partner in finance who just reviewed that crazy contract for
you. Small wins abound, and showing appreciation is a great way to celebrate.

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k__
The problem is often that most startups don't have success.

So either they celebrate banalities or they don't celebrate at all...

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davesuperman
Any other ways that startups can celebrate their wins?

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davnicwil
Similar to your first point but absolutely just calling out individual efforts
and successes when they meaningfully move the needle.

This doesn't have to be formalised into a slot in an 'all hands' or 'TGIF'
type meeting, if anything that takes away from the sincerity of it, sometimes.
Can feel forced.

One particular point I want to emphasise: _thank individuals_ for their work.
Be very precise about attribution of credit. Don't thank managers publicly,
even if they contributed meaningfully (if they did, thank them privately of
course). Part of the deal of being a good manager is understanding that you
take more responsibility than credit, so _never_ say "thanks to <manager> and
team for delivering X".

If a whole team contributed, thank each member in turn and try to pick out
what they each specifically did. If you're not sure who in the team
contributed, ask. _Never_ say "thanks team" or "thanks guys" if only 1 or 2
people did any of the work.

For individual contributors nothing is more demoralising, and makes it clearer
that people at the top of the company aren't really that interested in them,
than this kind of misattribution of credit for the work they've put so much
effort into. It's almost better to say nothing at all. This is really
important and most companies and people running companies get it wrong.

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davesuperman
Fantastic point on thanking people. It’s a very underestimated idea but, when
done authentically, can have a massive impact.

