Recognising and celebrating success: Sparkling moments

Reflective pause:

How comfortable am I with discussing my achievements openly? What factors influence my willingness or reluctance to share my successes with others?

Recognising and embracing our strengths and skills is essential for nurturing self-efficacy and self-confidence. A valuable approach to doing this is to recognise our successes and draw lessons from them. Success stories serve as invaluable sources of inspiration and learning opportunities, not only aiding in problem-solving but also fuelling our drive to excel. Embracing our own achievements while respecting those of others will boost self-esteem, heighten engagement and strengthen working relationships. 

Nonetheless, while people are often all too happy to talk about their failures, they can be reluctant to disclose their achievements due to concerns about appearing arrogant or boastful. This reluctance to share their accomplishments can lead to a disproportionate focus on shortcomings. This not only undermines motivation but also means we are restricted to learning from errors rather than successes. 

‘Sparkling’ (or ‘peak’) moments is a technique that can help you and your colleagues share their success stories.  Sparkling moments are times when you feel your best self. These moments often sparkle with positivity, excitement, or happiness, leaving a lasting impression on us.

For example, you may have achieved something at work that you thought made things better for someone and enabled progress. Identifying sparkling moments is a powerful way to recognise the individual skills and strengths that contribute to such achievements and how you can use them more effectively in the future. 

The sparkling moments technique involves reflecting on positive experiences with a colleague or friend.

Celebrating success: The sparkling moments technique

One person (person A) asks the other person (person B) a series of questions:

• What did you do when you felt you were ‘at your best’?

• What skills, knowledge and attributes did you use?

• How did you feel?

Person A listens carefully and notes down the skills, knowledge and attributes that Person B describes, as well as any key themes or behaviours that emerge from their description.

When Person B has finished speaking, Person A provides feedback on the specific skills and attributes that have emerged. They then ask Person B:

• What have you learned about your key skills?

• How could you use these to manage a problem you are experiencing right now?

• What steps could you take to increase the opportunity for more experiences like this?

Participants then swap roles, and Person B asks the same questions of Person A.

The ‘sparkling moments’ technique has been used extensively in training sessions with health and social care practitioners. It can be particularly effective in peer coaching (see FWB3 Learning Mindset Core Action) to encourage people to talk about their strengths and resources and how these can be used to face new challenges