Great Results Require MORE!

There’s No Prize for Just Showing Up!

Having recently looked at some of the biggest challenges we’re facing in the workplace today, as well as some of the issues that come from handing out trophies to folks who aren’t even participating, let’s change gears and look at some things we do intentionally as leaders to avoid most of those things in our organizations!

As I scoured through several articles centered around the idea of participation trophies, I quickly realized that the term has some thick ties to generation bashing; specifically where Baby-Boomers and Gen-X’ers are slamming millennials… That was nowhere close to my goal! In fact, I’m convinced that the perception of entitlement is a cancer that’s impacted every generation in some way.?

Before you tune me out completely, consider this… How often do you go back to a restaurant that served mediocre food with poor service - regardless of the price? It’s painfully true if you’re ordering from a menu but it applies to when you’re ordering from the wall just as much. Seriously… If McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A are side by side, which drive thru are you pulling in? Unless it’s Sunday, my money is on Chick-fil-A. Even when you’re 20 cars deep for God’s chicken sandwich and there are only two in line for a Big Mac, you know you’ll still get yours faster - and you can get a milkshake (because Mickey-D’s machine is gonna be broken)!

Realistically, service and quality matter in nearly every buying decision we make. And sooner or later, the results show up on the profit & loss statement for every business.

Now consider these words from James Harrison, former professional linebacker, as cited in article called The Truth About Participation Trophies

“I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy. I’m sorry I’m not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I’m not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best … cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better … not cry and whine until somebody gives you something to shut u [sic] up and keep you happy.”

Truth be told, the majority of the article was focused on dispelling the idea that participation trophies were a millennial thing, dating the phrase back to before World War I. I don’t really care when the idea started, nor do I care why any given generation may or may not be better than another. However, I do care about the culture in the organizations we support and I do care about whether or not those companies are profitable!

So apply that Chick-fil-A/McDonald’s scenario to any situation where you have to reach for your wallet and tell me that there’s a prize for just showing up… There’s not!

If we truly want the teams we lead to do more than just show up, and do it consistently, there are a few things we’ll need to be sure to do consistently ourselves!

The Court of Public Opinion

I maintain that I’ve never seen anyone truly value something they didn’t earn… I can’t think of classmates through high school who had some of the fanciest clothing, cars, or whatever but treated those things with very little respect. I remember watching numerous folks party their way through college while I was working multiple jobs to make rent. I can also point to more than a few subsidized housing developments that are outright dangerous, largely because there’s no real pride in ownership. And none of that even touches on how I’ve seen being given something without earning it impact the individual’s self-image, and ultimately their work ethic…

I’ll say it again, this has nothing to do with a specific generation or demographic. I can’t point to a single person that I’ve ever met who doesn’t want to feel like they’re making a difference for someone in some way! Giving them that proverbial trophy for merely participating, and for even less than that in many cases today, takes away their opportunity to find that sense of purpose from making a difference.

If we tie this back to the organizations we’re a part of and how we lead our teams, it truly falls on our shoulders to set (and communicate) clear expectations about the specific results that need to be achieved and we need to provide ongoing feedback to each team member about their performance. As leaders, we do indeed owe them that!

After reading a few of the articles I found, in addition to the one with comment from James Harrison, I realize I may be one of the few folks willing to maintain that rewarding mediocrity - from anyone in any generation - absolutely contributes to the challenges we’re facing in the workplace today. So be it! This is one I’m willing to dig my heels in on and argue until I’m blue in the face. Removing the hard questions from a test may result in some sort of immediate gratification but that will definitely be short lived when tried in the court of public opinion…

Every single customer our businesses serve judges us on the value they receive through the transaction, whether it’s a physical product, a specific service, or a combination of the two. And as employees, at least in the private sector, the owners or managers we report to are judging us on those same things. If value isn’t provided, the chances of repeat business (or ongoing employment) become slim.

Don’t miss my point, this isn’t just a rant. As leaders, regardless of our position or title within our organization, we play a huge role in addressing - and potentially eliminating - one of the biggest challenges I’ve seen so many workplaces deal with in recent years. It ties back to setting the right expectations and providing the specific feedback I mentioned earlier, and I believe there’s a simple approach to doing just that!

The Old Fashioned Way…

Think back to the scenario I shared as we started digging into the biggest challenges we’re facing in the workplace today where my friend told his students they’d better have a really good excuse for not performing well in his class… He wasn’t just being harsh, he showed up with one good limb even after his employer gave him the chance to take four to five months off. Ken had high expectations for his students but he was leading by example!

I just suggested that there’s a simple approach we can each take, which I believe will go a long way toward eliminating some of the biggest challenges we see in our respective workplaces. Before I do that though, I want you to consider a phrase from one of the old Smith-Barney commercials… There’s this old guy with a majestic voice sitting alone at his desk in a giant office ranting about all the pomp and circumstance other financial advisors offer, then he closes by stressing that “Smith-Barney makes money the old fashioned way. They EARN IT!”

Ken was very clear about the expectation he had for his students’ performance that semester from the very beginning. But I’d argue that any increased engagement he saw over previous semesters didn’t come from his words, I believe he EARNED IT… He set an example that I’m convinced impacted each of their lives, whether they fully understood it then or not! As leaders, we need to set clear expectations for how we need our teams to perform AND we need to earn their buy-in by setting an example they can follow.

Just like our businesses are judged in the Court of Public Opinion by customers who can easily choose to make their purchases elsewhere, our team members often base their performance on how they judge our engagement into the goals we’re pushing them to reach. In either case, with customers or our team members, nobody owes us anything - we have to EARN IT! Clear expectations start that process. Setting a solid example builds the foundation to carry it forward. But we need to be sure to include two more things if we’re going to sustain it.

I could go on for days on the importance of providing specific feedback to our team members so they have a complete understanding of how their performance measures up to what we expect of them. We often hear this referred to as constructive criticism. That’s crap. The idea of criticism suggests we’re picking apart their performance; that’s not even close to what I’m suggesting. The feedback we need to provide should be tied directly to how their performance (their behavior) impacts the goals we need them to achieve (their results). This needs to be very clear and measurable, and we need to provide it in a timely manner. The more time that passes between the behavior and the feedback, the less impact it will have. Then we need to make sure we’re doing this consistently. This can’t be something we do once every six months…

When we’re able to do the things we’ve looked at here and effectively address some of the biggest challenges we’re facing in the workforce today, then we’d better be sure we’re rewarding the positive results our team is achieving. I’m talking about trophies for showing up, this is more like Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Jerry McGuire and showing them the money - whether that’s through total compensation or straight cash…?

Seriously though, if we’re willing to EARN the engagement that eliminates even a few of those workplace challenges then our team members will most certainly be earning their own rewards in the process - and this should be a cycle that feeds itself moving forward!