Lessons from the High School Pep Rally

Although I’m not sure I want to relive high school anytime soon, there’s one part that I would totally bring back—the pep rally. Remember how uplifting those hours were, screaming and cheering in the school gym? Even if you weren’t on a team, you still felt the spirit and were inspired to come together as a group.

I’ve come to realize that the adult version of the pep rally is the pep talk, and recently, I’ve been reminded of how important they really are. We have a lot of new faces at CLEAR-- people who weren’t there to see the sleepless nights, sweat and tears that characterized our first few months running the company. So last week, I gathered our team for breakfast and went through our history, using old emails and old endless to-do lists as props. I don’t think I took a breath for the entire meeting. My point was to emphasize how far we’ve come and how important every member of our team is to our future, even if they weren’t here at the beginning.

Afterwards, I got a lot of feedback about how invigorating my “pep talk” was and how excited everyone was to chart our progress and transformation and to be a part of the future of CLEAR.

Sharing your experiences (the “pep talk”) with others can be incredibly motivating, even if only for 5 informal minutes. So grab your pom-poms, and stay on the lookout for ways to have the “pep talk” with your teammates. These moments will have more of an impact than you know.

How to give a pep talk:

• Keep it tight
• Make it personal
• Use your experience to offer concrete examples
• Make it the only item on the agenda
• Keep it informal

Photo credit: Charles Roberts/Flickr