A Very Wicked Leadership Lesson

Several years ago, my family and I were in Chicago. We capped off a tourist's day of shopping and sightseeing with a night of theater.?

We chose - Wicked?- the touring Broadway musical.

• If you are familiar with the show, a song may have just popped into your head.?
• If you have yet to learn about Wicked, it's an alternative telling of the famous Wizard of Oz story and takes place both before and shortly after the original storyline.

We enjoyed the show, but what stuck with me from the performance was a line from the song,?Wonderful.

In the song, the Wizard makes an intriguing pronouncement, "The most celebrated are the rehabilitated." Not only did the line jump out at me the night of the show, but I've thought about it often over the years.

"The most celebrated are the rehabilitated." - The Wizard?

Why would this line stick with me?

I believe there is truth to the Wizard's words.

Think about it; we love a turnaround story. It's the type of stuff that makes for great literature, amazing lyrics, and compelling movies.

• Hearing of someone who rebounds from a low point seems to speak to our innate desire to help others.
• Maybe it's less altruistic and informs us that redemption is still within our grasp if (and when) we fall.

Whatever the reason, we root for others to recover from addiction, overcome adversity, and mend broken relationships.

The same is true at work.

• We celebrate the team member who turns around his performance.
• We praise the once-disengaged employee who found her voice in a new project or initiative.
• We tell stories of the struggling team members who stepped up and delivered terrific results.

The problem isn't in celebrating a rehabilitated person. As a leader, when you find someone doing the right thing, especially with a history of not doing the right thing, you should make a big deal out of it.

The problem is the word most as in, "The most celebrated are the rehabilitated.'

Why is the word most concerning?

Consider your team or organization. You likely have three groups of performers:

1. Top performers. They always deliver.
2. Underperformers. They are struggling or are disengaged.
3. Solid citizens. They come to work day after day and do a good job.

If you assigned your team members to these three groups, I bet many, if not the bulk, would reside in the Solid Citizens group.

Most people are solid citizens. Most people come to work every day and do a good job. They deliver good results. They make a solid effort. They are often the backbone of the organization.

Yet, they are rarely celebrated.

We recognize them when they hit a significant milestone, like 20 years of service, or they decide to retire, but we fail to celebrate their daily contributions.

True, the Solid Citizen story may not be as exciting as the top performer, who closed the big deal, or the underperformer, who came back from hard times, but it is vital to the team's overall success.

Here are a few questions to consider about you and your team:

• Who are the solid citizens in your organization - the ones that seek no glory but do a good job day after day?
• What do you think it feels like to them if they are walked past daily, taken for granted and rarely recognized?
• How might you begin to acknowledge better the efforts of the solid citizens in your midst?

Take a few minutes today to recognize the Solid Citizens in your midst.

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