The Power of a High Five

I cherish the opportunity to celebrate the triumphs or accomplishments large and, ever more so, small of my teammates.  Kudos, champagne toasts, calling out someone's otherwise invisible efforts, stopping to pat ourselves on the back (and take a breath).  Admittedly, I overlook those of my own all to often on the way to the next thing on my to-do list as many of us do.

But I found in training someone into the world of bookkeeping and office management for a client (and to free me up for my shifting increasingly to strategic operations, team development and growth management), the opportunity to rediscover the associated accomplishments and the opportunities to celebrate them.  One of these opportunities being: reconciliations!

Yes, bank reconciliations.  Recapturing the joy of ticking everything off, having no errors and getting to the zero difference in balance between your books and the bank statement.  That sense of completeness and tidiness and getting to move forward from a new starting point afresh.

Really, bookkeeping or accounting can become much like doing the laundry.  What started as a sense of satisfaction at month-end being buttoned up, becomes a matter of "Didn't I just do that?" all too easily over time.  But in training Kim from doing general entry to owning payroll and tackling reconciliations I got to see her find that old familiar joy of, "Yes, it zeroed out!" on her first solo bank reconciliation.  I turned around and went "High Five!" (Thankfully, we didn't miss.)  And now every month we do a Reconciliation High Five.

Everyone plays a critical role in the smooth (as bumpy as it can get sometimes) operating of an organization, be they at the helm of an exciting new product or program rolling out or be they making sure the phone bill is paid on time, the bathrooms stocked of toilet paper and the books are in order.  Everyone warrants their small victories be celebrated as well as the large.   In that, there can be the shared awareness on the part of any team that everyone contributes large and (seemingly) small, and that the sum of those parts can be pretty magic.

And, for Kim, the longer I can help stave off that sense she's just doing the laundry, taking pride in her work and owning her satisfaction in accomplishments that don't just slip into invisibility with time and repetition, the better.  Plus, it's fun.

So, high fives!