The first thing I ask frustrated owners is “Do you celebrate in your business?”

You might wonder why I consider it an important question. Ceremony and Celebrations go back to the beginning of recorded history. Early man celebrated a good hunt. Every religion has a host of holidays to celebrate the hero’s and stories of their history. Ceremony’s are a special kind of celebration. When morale is low in a business, many times the first step is to start with a ceremony or a celebration. Once though, the owner told me he “hated people”.

Ceremony or Celebration, What is The Difference.

A ceremony is a celebration. Not all celebrations have a ceremony. Birthday parties are sort of a foggy middle. Yes we get older but nothing feels like it changed. A ceremony marks a change of some kind. Graduating High School for many is a big ceremony. Since the early days of organized civilization there have been ceremonies to crown Kings and in military circles, change commanders. These ceremony’s set the tone for the new boss.

In your business, if you promote someone, a small ceremony may be in order. A big announcement may be in order too, depending on how big the news that justifies the ceremony. Ceremonies quickly lets everyone know about the promotion and gets the employee started on the new path. The ceremony also helps them leave the old position behind so that the new person can step into the job.

In business ceremonies, there are ribbon cuttings for new buildings, promotion announcements, retirement ceremonies and of course educational ceremonies. If your business has a difficult training program, there should be a ceremony to let the graduates know that now is the time to get to work.

Celebration Time

Sometimes a full ceremony isn’t warranted but a little celebration is. Holiday parties are common, but what about celebrating a banner year. What about landing that big contract, kicking off a new ad campaign or launching that new product? Can a positive start help the success of the person, the ad campaign or the product? Of course it can. Can a negative start hurt? Yes, it can.

Think about the business you want to run. I hope it is one with a little ceremony and a lot of well earned celebration.