When You Don’t Celebrate Your Wins, You Hold Your Company Back

At my agency VaynerMedia, we have big wins every day. And yet: silence. Nothing.

I am terrible at celebrating victories. And I believe that that is one of the biggest flaws of my being.

You might see it as a very strong winner’s mentality. I often choose to see it that way. But the truth is, I stink at it. And it is something that needs to be addressed. Because learning to celebrate victories, in my opinion, is an integral part to company culture.

At my agency VaynerMedia, we have big wins every day. We land big new accounts. We grow like crazy. We win awards. And yet: silence. Nothing. No chest pounding. And I think it’s interesting because when you look at me as a character and see how I roll, I never outright announce victories as they happen. Sure, I humblebrag. I might refer back to something in hindsight. My haters will even tell you I have a huge ego (and I respect that). But, if a company I invest in has a big win, or my own company VaynerMedia receives an accolade, I am quiet on the matter.

This is probably all because I love the climb. And many entrepreneurs are the same way. If you’re all about the hard parts of business, the nitty gritty, then you’re probably not too concerned about what happens when you get to the top of the mountain. You just to get to the next battle so you can win it. But this can be dangerous, especially since not everyone you employ is going to be just like you (seems obvious, but, it has to be said). If you just move right along to the next big win, it might come off as something else to an employee. I celebrate victories in a very soft way, and that is perhaps a way that is not entirely appropriate.

But I’m working on it. I want to change. I’ve talked a lot about how everything stems from the top when it comes to company culture. The way you act and behave in your company dictates a huge amount of how the culture will be. So it’s up to me to change how I celebrate victories so I can better communicate with my company on how we can celebrate them as a team.

Because stopping to smell the roses is important. Acknowledging that we are doing great work is important. I want VaynerMedia to be a place where we celebrate our wins.

No matter what your company does, big or small, celebrate the victories.Maybe you’re already doing that now. But stop and consider how you are showing that appreciation. How are you celebrating? It’s an important question. Definitely one that is on my mind now as we move forward.

What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts! 🙂