How do you celebrate wins with a distributed team?
How do you celebrate wins with a distributed team? My team has only 2 overlapping hours, and I’m looking for ways to celebrate our achievements within a small budget.
What would you recommend? Small swag? Stickers? Any online presents? What activities can we even do?
As a team leader, first recognize that individuals on your team most likely value different forms of kudos. Have you ever heard of “love languages”? I believe there’s something similar when it comes to how team members prefer appreciation. One mistake I see many leaders make is assuming how they like to receive kudos is how everyone else likes to as well. But everyone has a different appreciation language.
Some will like words of affirmation, others will like acts of service, and certain other people will prefer receiving gifts. Your first step as a leader is to determine what form of appreciation the members of your team value. I typically collect this data during onboarding so I can utilize it from day 1.
For those who prefer words of affirmation, it’s also important to recognize whether they prefer these kudos to be given privately or publicly. Some will see more value in their wins being celebrated during a 1:1 while others feel more appreciated when they are celebrated in a more public channel.
I recommend all remote teams have two public channels in Slack or whatever communication tool they use: Shoutouts and Wins. The ‘Shoutouts’ channel is for individuals of any role to share notes of appreciation for other team members. The Wins channel is to call out group efforts. These two simple channels greatly impact combatting the visibility issues that most remote teams face. They also provide helpful data during performance review time.
Acts of service are one of my favorite areas to get creative. Can you offer a surprise day off work? Can you add them to a project that you know will help them reach the next career step they’re aiming for? This option requires some extra effort and knowledge, but can be extremely rewarding.
For gift-giving, be careful about how it might be interpreted. If their efforts just saved the company thousands and then they receive stickers in the mail, you can imagine how poorly that comes across. This is the exact opposite of what we’re aiming for with our appreciation efforts.
Also, I’ve never been a fan of how shipping and the work involved tends to majorly cut into the limited budget leaders have for this kind of thing. I do highly recommend tools like Bonusly or Awardco for peer-to-peer gift-giving. They allow team members to build up points and choose their own reward.
One approach I’ve used with multiple remote teams that has been a huge hit for celebrating wins is an adventure bonus. People use it to do something locally and then share that experience in a Slack channel. I’ve seen coworkers use it for day trips, nice meals out with family, mountain climbs, etc. It’s always cool to see the story and pictures. Plus, it’s a great tool for getting to know people’s interests and cool stuff to do around the world from locals. My favorite places to eat while traveling have always come from these stories.
At the end of the day, the best tools for appreciation utilize intentionality and individualization. Make the effort to know what form of appreciation your team members value, then try to add elements of options so they can choose what works best for them. Use the examples above as a foundation, but don’t be afraid to get creative. These efforts may feel like small things, but they end up being the difference makers in teams with great retention and morale.
