This past Saturday we held our annual company “Core Value Awards”.  It’s a time for us to celebrate our accomplishments from the previous year and recognize those that have made a significant impact on Footers Catering.  We give out nine awards (one for each of our core values) and the winners are presented with a tiger trophy as a tribute to the acronym: FAB TIGERS, which is how we remember our nine values.  The event concludes with the premier of   our annual “Year in Review” Video which is my gift to the team, a tradition that started many years ago as an opportunity to commemorate all that we did in a given year and not forget all the awesomeness that happened.  This is one of my favorite events of the year and this year was no exception.  To see the genuine camaraderie that our team has and their enjoyment of being together is something that I am incredibly grateful for and makes me very proud.

While we celebrated the company and a few members of our team on Saturday, my message to the team this week was to continue the celebration of one another.  When other people are successful it can be easy to slip into a state of jealousy or resentment.  The best response in these situations though is to do the opposite though and celebrate those accomplishments with them.  Celebrating the success of others creates optimism, can help you recognize your own success and improves willpower.  It also builds community and trust and shining a light on what you believe is a success, might help that person see it as well.

“Kindness is choosing to acknowledge and celebrate the beauty in others, regardless of whether or not they can find it in themselves.”

I challenged our team to celebrate something about someone else every day for a week and If you’re up for it, I challenge you to do the same.  It doesn’t have to be a successful event or a major accomplishment - it could simply be acknowledging something you think is awesome about someone else.  This could be done in the form of a hand written note, an act of gratitude or simply telling them in person the qualities they have that you admire, appreciate or think they do really well!  Training our brain to start looking for the positives within our teams can have a tremendous impact on our attitude and the way we show up for our team.  So start scanning your team for Awesomeness and celebrate what you see!

*Each week I share a leadership message with our team and we are honored to share it with you via MIBE Tribe.  MIBE (the acronym for Make It Better Everyday) Tribe delivers education on heart leadership and intentional culture building for the hospitality industry.