Run the all-hands on wins.

Ten wins. One slide each. Applause after every single one.

A client asked me how to get the whole team excited at their quarterly all-hands. They had an offsite planned, and they wanted people to leave feeling bought into where the company was going.

The way I’ve always done it is pretty simple. Lead with wins, and really lean into them.

I don’t mean one slide titled “Highlights.” I mean ten big wins: an exciting new client, a great piece of work, someone who went above and beyond, a key new hire. Give each one its own slide. Pause. Let people clap.

It sounds a little corny. It works.

The tricky part is the goals that didn’t go well. If you only talk about the ones on track, people notice what you skipped. But if you put the misses up there with someone’s name next to them, that person spends the rest of the meeting feeling awful in front of their peers.

So I frame misses as opportunities, and I make them the whole team’s problem. Something like: “We didn’t get as many leads this quarter as we wanted. Later today we’re doing a short workshop on it, and I want everyone’s ideas.”

That doesn’t mean nobody’s accountable. It just means accountability happens one on one, not on a stage.

It’s simple psychology, really. Encourage the behaviour you want to see, and find creative ways to correct the rest.

Celebrate in public. Hold people accountable in private.