The Power of Celebration

January 11 is one of my favorite holidays. You may have never heard of it, but it’s one I look forward to celebrating at the start of every year!

ImpactEleven Day officially occurs on Jan. 11 every year and is our occasion to recognize and celebrate the incredible impact our Community has on our industry, each other, and our world. It’s our very own holiday!

It’s also our opportunity to thank our clients, partners and friends for supporting the ImpactEleven Mission of putting talented people with a powerful message in a position to make an impact on the world. 

One of our core beliefs is “Dance like nobody’s watching.” Essentially, that means we:

• Prioritize fun.
• Enjoy the journey. 
• Reject politics and BS. 
• Create a life we love.

Celebration can have a major impact on your team and culture. The O.C. Tanner Institute finds that when you make recognition a seamless part of the employee experience, people produce better work and are more engaged. Attrition declines by 29% and burnout by 80%.

When you leverage the power of celebration at work, here’s what you create:

• Connection: Celebrating with colleagues fosters relationships and collaboration. You can use celebrations to create connections with customers, vendors and other stakeholders.
• Momentum: Everyone wants to feel connected to something larger than themselves. Celebration reinforces that you’re on the right track and brings certainty to uncertain situations.
• Anticipation: Spontaneous celebrations are wonderful, but also look forward to milestones you can celebrate. By creating anticipation, you build excitement about company projects and goals.
• Progress: We’ve asked a lot from our people during the past few years of change and uncertainty. Recognize the small wins. Progress matters on the journey to success.

Celebrating Community Better Together

Celebrating in a community is a special experience. As part of our final December event — our Ungala — we shared meaningful recognition with community members who best represent our 11 operating principles. 

Unfortunately I was home on the couch, missing an occasion I had looked forward to all year with the flu.  However, I could still feel the shared connection through the screen as the community celebrated one another. 

We really are better together: 

While I didn’t get to celebrate with them in person at the Ungala, my life and career are imbued with a whole lot more fulfillment because I get to walk alongside these incredible humans and count them as colleagues and friends.. Here are the 2023 ImpactEleven Community Award recipients: 

• Adam Smiley Poswolsky: Play Jazz, Not Classical
• Michelle Anne Johnson: Give Generously, Don’t Keep Score
• Natalie Nixon: Do Less Better
• Giselle Ugarte: Do Less Better
• Justin Wren: Give Generously, Don’t Keep Score
• Paul Epstein: Reach for Eleven
• Jessica Encell Coleman: Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
• Riaz Meghji: Smoother Than a Fresh Jar of Skippy
• Jamie Hess: With a Little Help From Our Friends
• Frankie Russo: With a Little Help From Our Friends
• Bridget Hilton: With a Little Help From Our Friends
• Alisha De Lorenzo: Fight the Good Fight
• Joey Aviles: By the Community, for the Community
• Jesse Israel: “blank”
• Dan Chuparkoff: Leave It Better Than We Found It
• Jerry Won: Leave It Better Than We Found It
• Erin Stafford: Breakthrough & Breakaway
• Scott De Long: Made With love
• Tucker Bryant: Made With Love
• Alison Canavan: Made With Love
• Ivy Gustafson: ImpactEleven Team Member of the Year
• Rachel Sheerin: Community Member of the Year

Celebration is perhaps the best way to say, “Thank you. We care about you. We appreciate you. Your contribution matters.”

Happy ImpactEleven Day!