I Bet You Have Never Applauded on a Video Call

Building a workplace culture in a virtual world is tough.  While I am still a proponent of in office work, I understand the appeal and demand for virtual work.  With teams dispersed around the globe, we will be stuck in a hybrid world at best for the foreseeable future.  One of the hardest things for virtual teams to do is to acknowledge and celebrate successes. 

The best teams that I work with are good at celebrating success. They build positive momentum off of successes. Celebrating success can become a self fulfilling prophecy for even more success. The best example I know of is the elaborate endzone dances that NFL teams concoct. These dances are choreographed and practiced all week long in hopes that the team will score and have the opportunity to perform the endzone dance. Does your work team have an equivalent endzone dance? A unique way that your team celebrates success and acknowledges even small wins in your own unique way? My guess is probably not.

I have been challenging conventional thinking and team norms when working with virtual teams.  When leading virtual meetings, I make it a point to highlight team successes and the best way I know to do this is to ask for a round of applause.  This is typically met with awkwardness.  “You want us to clap while sitting alone at home?”  Hell yes!  While you are alone at home your clapping in unison with the rest of the team creates the same round of applause effect as it would if you were in person.

Show them some love with a round of applause!

This unnatural tendency must be broken if we are to embrace virtual meetings and supporting team successes.  In the words of Lady Gaga, “I live for the applause, applause, applause!”

Next time you are on a teams or Zoom call and there is cause for celebration, be bold, be brave and start a round of applause.  Show the team that it is cool to applaud while sitting alone at home. You may even get some approval from your dog, your spouse or others in the house.