Tom Mullins writes in his wonderful book The Leadership Game: Winning Principles from Eight National Champions, “If a team is not allowed to celebrate each victory, not only are the individuals’ spirits dampened at a time when they should be soaring, but their efforts are never validated or recognized.”
He adds, “The central problem is that you can’t very well get them excited to take the second step if you never acknowledged that they took the first step successfully.”
Celebration is the payoff for all the hard work your team has done. Celebration is what makes winning fun. As a result, a leader who can’t celebrate is a leader not worth following.
Last week I wrote about Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders in the post 8 Leadership Lessons From Coach Prime Deion Sanders’s TCU Pregame Speech (Includes Full Transcript). He has disrupted the sport of college football. After the team’s 36-14 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers this past weekend, Coach Prime fully embodied the value of celebration.
First, check out the video below and then I will follow up with seven leadership lessons on the importance of celebration:
Somebody give Peggy her theme music 🥹#GoBuffs pic.twitter.com/aRNb4OhIqc
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) September 9, 2023
7 Leadership Lessons from Colorado’s Celebration Video
Celebration Unites Generations
Celebration is a shared experience. The celebration shown above included a senior adult, an adult head coach, coaches and staff various ages, and 80+ collegiate athletes.
Celebration Unites Races
Building on the shared experience concept, a Caucasion lady, African-American head coach, and a diversified collegiate team all joined the post-game festivities.
The following five lessons come from Coach Mullins’s book along with his thoughts on each:
Celebration Acknowledges Accomplished Goals
“Celebration affirms that expectations were met and lays the groundwork for setting new expectations.”
Celebration Validates the Effort Needed to Achieve Victory
“A leader must validate a team’s hard work if he desires it to continue.”
Celebration Motivates the Team to Try Harder
“Typically once a team tastes victory, the participants find that they can and will work harder to taste it again.”
Celebration Improves Attitudes
“The more parties you have, the better your team tends to feel.” Your team’s attitude will determines its altitude.
Celebration Attracts New Team Members
“Celebrations show outsiders that being a part of your team is where it’s at.” And who wouldn’t want to be a part of Coach Prime’s team right now? The better question is do they want to be part of your’s?
Conclusion
“Give me my theme music!”
My latest eBook is available for download. The Top 65 Leadership Quotes Of 2022 Part 1 is a resource every leader should have. Great quotes bring clarity and put into words who we intuitively feel as leaders. They give us wisdom and insights which advance the mission and vision of our organizations. This eBook includes thoughts and insights from leaders like Warren Buffett, Nick Saban, James Clear, Dawn Staley, Jurgen Klopp, Jerry Seinfeld, and even Ted Lasso. This resource will take you about 10 minutes to read but a lifetime to apply. You will want to stop and ponder the implications of each quote. Click HERE or on the image provided for immediate download!