Thoughts on Leadership: A Time to Celebrate

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me in Costa Rica at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, a sprawling, tropical retreat overlooking the Gulf of Papagayo that borders the sandy beaches and pristine waters of the Culebra Bay. I was visiting Costa Rica for the Berkshire Elite Circle Conference, which brought together broker/owners from the top 50 companies in the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network for a celebration of their achievements.

Gino Blefari onstage at the 2016 Berkshire Elite Circle Conference in Costa Rica.

The event kicked off with a welcome reception and equestrian show, where a horse danced to traditional Costa Rican music. The next night was the awards ceremony to honor each top-performing brokerage. Finally, the conference wrapped with a closing-night extravaganza set to the tune of a percussion-based band, playing as fluorescent paint fell in brilliant drops of color on their drums. The brilliance, I must say, matched the palpable, bright energy of our broker/owners, who not only came with optimistic mindsets to share ideas but were also happy to take a few moments to reap the rewards of their success.

In fact, celebration is the theme of today’s post because too often leaders forget just how important it can be. Your team’s accomplishments deserve recognition and achievements deserve to be commended. As Oprah Winfrey once famously said, “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”

Take, for instance, the upcoming July Fourth holiday, a celebration of the independence of our country. Why is it that even centuries after that glorious day—July 4, 1776—when the colonies claimed their autonomy from England by officially adopting the Declaration of Independence, it had been through 86 revisions since its initial draft, we still celebrate the momentous occasion each time July 4 comes around? And why is it that exactly 240 years after the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence took place in Philadelphia’s Independence Square—complete with ringing bells and the music of live bands then followed the year after by bonfires and fireworks—we still send sparklers into the sky and celebrate what it means to live in an America that’s free?

Because to celebrate is to remember the good in life; it’s a chance to refocus our energies from whatever challenges we face on the road to professional success and recall how very far we’ve come.

So, what’s the message? It’s one I was reminded of in Costa Rica and will take to heart this year on Independence Day: I define celebration as the reinforcement of motivation that carries us through to the next achievement. That’s why celebration needs to be encouraged by leaders so that when the hard times come around, when the struggles and failures of business present themselves, the leader’s team can recall the feeling of celebration and be motivated to work even harder to celebrate success once again.

GINO BLEFARI is CEO of HSF Affiliates LLC. You can follow Gino on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.