Do you know people with awesome accomplishments who rarely seem satisfied with their achievements? They complete one thing and move right on to the next without pause. The expression, “stop and smell the roses” isn’t in their vocabulary.
If you’re never satisfied, you’re missing the experience of recognizing milestone moments. Successes come and go, you keep plowing away, and the memory of what was successful drifts away.
Leaders who fall into this “rarely satisfied” category tend to miss the opportunity to recognize the people who contributed to a specific success. You may not think that a particular achievement is a big deal, but chances are, they do. And by ignoring it, you’re paying forward the idea that valuing these accomplishments doesn’t matter.
So even if you choose to not recognize an accomplishment, you do a disservice to your staff by ignoring it.
Another disadvantage of not creating meaning from accomplishments is that there are no gradations of work. You’re always working diligently. After one project is completed, you move on without pause to the next assignment.
If you don’t identify the gradations, then everything blurs and you treat each task with the same level of importance. As a leader, you’ve lost all sense of proportion and priorities.
Your team aside, it’s worth contemplating why you prefer not to acknowledge your satisfaction in a job well done. Do you feel you’re tooting your own horn? That it’s not a big deal? That this is your job, that is, what you’re paid to do so there’s no reason to make a big deal of it?
Take some time to know what satisfies you, and if appropriate, share this with your co-workers. Learn what satisfies them, too, so that all have the perspective of how doing good work creates meaning.