Andy Choy's Non Sequitur

I love what I've read about Jack Welch's management philosephies. He make a heck of a lot of sense with some pretty straightforward ideas such as the importance of candor within an organization. One of his lessor discussed tennants has to do with celebrating successess. Although he doesn't emphasize this pricipal too much, I have found it to be very important. Rather, I have experienced the consequences of failing to do so first hand.

The main drawback of not sufficiently celebrating successes is that it kills employee morale. I'm not talking about the promoting flowery, "Hey, isn't this a great place to work!" morale. I'm talking about avoiding the "That isn't my job!" mentality. When you don't celebrate success, there's no incentive for people to stick their neck out and put extra effort into their daily jobs. Sales people side with their customers on the margin. Marketing departments run promotions during peak times when their assured success, ironically when the marginal effect of marketing dollars is lower. Employees start leaving at the stroke of 5:00 PM. I wouldn't be surprised if expense accounts slowly creep up as well.

This problem can be very easily overcome by simply remembering to celebrate successes, no matter now small.