The Award Pandemic

There is not a day that passes by when I read someone to hail his/her award for CIO of the year. We see a happy smile on their LinkedIn picture and have them say the memorable words that the award would not have been possible without their team (....)

Sorry for this rant, but the evergoing need for self glorification annoys me big time and, to be honest, has a complete counter impact on me.??

Some Examples

How many of your contacts in the past period posed with a CIO-top xxx award?

How about yet another airline that was elected as Airline of the year (how many best airlines of the years are there???). Google around and you will find that in 2020 Air Newzealand, Qatar, and Azul (????) all won this award. When was the last time you chose your airline based on the award they won?

It always reminds me of the village where I grew up. We had two butchers, they both had a massive number of certificates hanging on the wall for making the best sausages...

A company I worked for, won for years in a row the 'best service desk in the region' award until we stopped sponsoring the event. Ever since then we no longer won the event.

In magic, you can win the Merlin award as long as you fly over the organiser to hand it over to you for the picture.

Oh, another one.?

Years ago, in 2015, I got an email from Hilton, where I was a loyal member, asking if I wanted to vote for their General manager, of a hotel I stayed in, for the?prestigious “Prix Trofémina” competition. Guess what, that manager herself sent the mail!

I kindly emailed the CEO (copying the manager) suggesting they remove me from their loyalty program. For your amusement here is that email.?

Remember

Always remember that the person you see in these pictures receiving the award either had to nominate him/her self or the company did it. Also, they had to buy a table at the award dinner. The only real winner of these schemes often is the organizer?

The only award

There is only one real award to be proud of as a people coach. A high engagement score of your team and a low churn of staff; even (or especially) in these troublesome days.?

If either of these is low, you better go and register for your next award to pump up your ego!

PS

If you read carefully you will see me claim I won a magician of the year award. That was a prize I got awarded by fellow magicians who voted for me to get that prize, so was something I gratefully received and am still proud of.