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| The Problem With The Olympics |
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| Written by Tom Wall |
| Tuesday, 02 March 2010 05:55 |
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17 days and 37 medals later... the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver are over. Although short-lived, there were some pretty incredible moments during these winter games. And to think that the world’s premiere winter-sport athletes worked and trained tirelessly for many years, just so they could compete for less than three weeks! Although there are other competitions between now and the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, these Olympians will have to wait another four years to prove that they are officially the world’s greatest. So what if they didn’t give medals to the top three finishers? Would you watch? Would anyone? And what if they just gave everyone who competes a bronze medal? Actually, if they’re just going to hand out medals, why not make it a gold one?!?! If that were the case, do you think the athletes would train and work as hard as they do now in order to be the best? Or worse yet, would they even show up to compete? So let’s apply the Olympics medal system to how you operate your company. When it comes to rewards, how do you differentiate your top performers from your poor performers? To ask it another way... Imagine you’re one of your employees. What benefit would you receive for doing a really good job instead of just taking shortcuts to get the work done? In terms of being rewarded, is there a difference between being a great employee and being a lazy one? Now if you’re honest enough to admit that your current rewards system doesn’t recognize performance like the Olympic medals do, ask yourself, “Why not?” If you can agree that the Olympics would be pointless if it weren’t for the desire of the athletes to perform at their best and be recognized for this performance, then why not apply a similar system at your dairy? You see, regardless of where anyone comes from, people genuinely want to be recognized for the contributions they make. And for some reason, it seems many people also desire to see non-performers suffer the consequences for not contributing the way they should. Although I don’t have data to back it up, I’d argue that these two traits are inherent components of the human spirit. Now I’m not saying that you always have to interpret ‘rewards’ as money, but that’s a pretty good place to start re-evaluating how your rewards system actually recognizes your team. For many people, rewards take the shape of extra vacation time, an extra weekend off, a schedule that allows for more family time, and even the affordable ‘attaboy’. Many times people just want to be recognized by ‘the boss’ for their efforts and sacrifice with a sincere ‘Thank You’. This gesture of gratitude lets people know that their commitment to the company hasn’t gone unnoticed. But at the same time, as important as a pat-on-the-back is, keep in mind that even the sincerest compliments don’t help pay the bills. As it turns out, it seems the only problem with the Olympics is that they come around just once every four years and last only a couple of weeks. But each time they return, the Olympic Games provide an environment where top-performing teams and individuals receive the opportunity to do their best and be recognized fairly for their performance. So what about you... Can you say the same about your company?
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