The OpenWater Blog

Dear OpenWater: What Advice Do You Have For a New Awards Program?

Earlier this year, I had the privilege to spend a week at this amazing beach house in St. Augustine, Florida. Every day, I watched the sun rise and set. I sat out on the deck and just took in this amazing view.

My mind finally slowed down and I took the time to just breathe. Instead of running through all of my clients and remembering the action items I had for each, I took the time to reflect on my life. I realized that this is the happiest that I’ve been in a very long time. I’m enjoying work again. I believe and am passionate in what I’m doing. I’m surrounded by caring and supportive family, friends, and colleagues.

At the end of my trip, I gained a new sense of self and had a clearer picture of what I wanted to accomplish next. And since then, I’ve worked on accomplishing my goals and have succeeded in getting closer to achieving them.

So why am I talking about all of this?

I’m talking about all of this because I was recently asked a very important question:

“What advice would you give to an organization just starting an awards program?”

My response is to know who you are as an awards program. Know your mission, purpose, and value proposition. If you don’t know who you are, what you’re trying to accomplish, and what you’re providing to your audience, then why should anyone believe in and participate in your awards program?

This advice applies to not just new awards programs. It applies to all programs. Just like ourselves, awards programs evolve by what’s going on in the environment it’s in. Nothing takes place within a vacuum. Everything evolves with time.

Take the time to figure out your brand, mission, purpose, and value proposition. Once you’ve figured that out, it’s so much easier to relay who you are to your audience. I know I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what I have these past weeks and what I will be achieving if I didn’t know who I am, what I want to be, and what I want to accomplish.

Getting to that next step is much easier when you know where you are right now and where you’re trying to go.

To learn more about how to develop your awards program, download our guide.

This blog post kicks off a new series in our blog “Dear OpenWater”. If you’ve got questions about anything related to awards, let us know! Just fill out this form. 

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Theresa Delgado

Theresa is our resident awards guru. She managed the Greeting Card Association's LOUIE Awards before joining us here at OpenWater. She brings first hand knowledge and experience in successfully managing and expanding awards programs.

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