This week, we're challenging the deficit-focused mindset that dominates work culture and exploring why celebrating wins is essential for sustainable success and growth.

The Big Question: Why do we celebrate wins?

The Core Reasons:

1. Affirmation for the future: Celebrating wins proves you can achieve what you set out to do, building confidence for future challenges.
2. Gratitude and ownership: Acknowledging wins helps you recognize what's going well and your role in making it happen.
3. Breaking the negativity loop: Our performance-driven culture over-indexes on what's wrong. Celebrating wins gives you energy to tackle challenges without burning out.
4. The psychology works: Your brain can't process negatives—it naturally does more of what you focus on. Focus on wins, create more wins.

How to Start Celebrating Wins Today:

• Find your people: Identify someone who will genuinely celebrate with you, not diminish your success.
• Write them down: Journal your wins daily or weekly to reinforce what you did to make success possible.
• Bring it to your team: Start meetings with wins to model this practice for others.
• Hold the space sacred: When celebrating wins, resist listing what could be improved. Let wins stand on their own.

Key Takeaway: Celebrating wins and continuous improvement aren't mutually exclusive—they're partners. Stop waiting to acknowledge success. You'll have more energy, clarity, and momentum for everything else.

Your Assignment This Week: Write down your wins, share them with someone, celebrate with your team, and email us your wins at [email protected]—we'll celebrate with you!

Want to read more about what the research says?

On the power of small wins:

• The Power of Small Wins - Harvard Business Review

On how your brain reinforces what you focus on:

• Positive Reinforcement Mediated by Midbrain Dopamine Neurons - PLOS ONE

On why negative feedback rarely works:

• Negative Feedback Rarely Leads to Improvement - Harvard Business Review

On why negative self-talk undermines performance:

• Negative self-talk during sport performance - Journal of Sport Behavior

On approach vs. avoidance goals:

• Approaching Success, Avoiding the Undesired: Does Goal Type Matter? - Psychology Today

On the power of leader positivity:

• When Leaders Express Positivity Early On, Employees Perform Better - Harvard Business Review

On the brain's negativity bias:

• Our Brain's Negative Bias - Psychology Today
• Paradoxical Effects of Thought Suppression - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Resources:

• Navigating a big transition? Check out our Pivot Plan: 8 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Your Next Big Move.
• Think coaching might be right for you? Schedule a free consultation to explore how we can help you step into your next level of leadership.
• Interested in going deeper in your own leadership and building your network? Join the waitlist for The CoCreate Work Leadership Book Club to explore the themes from this episode in community—through powerful reads, reflection prompts, and live conversations.
• Our last session of the Culture Crash Course just ended, but if you're interested in a Culture Crash Course for your organization or team, please contact us at [email protected].
• Interested in leadership development for your team? Our Workshops are a great wait to develop your team's skills and connection.
• At CoCreate Work, we believe in asking great questions. Click here to receive our guide to 40 Powerful Questions to accelerate your growth.

We would love to connect with you!

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• Visit our Podcast Page

Questions you would like us to answer on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]