I was driving into work yesterday and the DJ's were talking about "Participation Trophy's". You know about these if you have kids. Kids are being giving trophies for participating on a team. It isn't just the MVPs or Unsung Hero awards that are being passed out. Some parent decided that all the kids, especially theirs, needed recognition. What kind of precedent does that set? No wonder we hear about Gen Y being characterized as entitled. That's how they were trained. I know, I know, this isn't true for all of Gen Y. But...what have we done?
Life isn't fair. We all know that. It is a tough lesson to learn and one that should probably be taught earlier. Our world is so competitive. Isn't a good idea to teach kids how to compete and lose and keep trying?
Mediocrity no longer is tolerated by employers. They are in business to make money and in order to do that, they need to hire star players not bench warmers. They can't afford to. They are operating lean and mean, especially right now after the layoffs many have done.
Instead of being a generalist...you need to have a specialty as well. Perhaps being a jack of all trades and a master of ONE is your new message. What will your ONE specialty be? (Most everyone has one, yet we take it for granted.)
Think about the good things your past colleagues have said about you. Review past performance appraisals. Read through customer letters of thanks. The answer lies in them.
What I am talking about is leveraging your innate talents by creating a greater awareness (perception) of them. Who needs to know about this talent? Who needs to be reminded of this talent? What company is in dire need of this talent?
If we teach this valuable lesson to our children today, they will be better able to thrive in the new world we live in. Can we teach them to continue to develop themselves, set goals, learn how to sell and to be good people? Can we?
We need to develop a team of "hungry" players- people who will do anything (ethical) to make this world a better place.
Hannah...you really struck a chord here. :) I just finished coaching my first season of flag football for 8-9 year olds at my local YMCA. It was a four team league. We did not win a single game. We had a lot of challenges with attention span and execution. To be fair, we got NO practice time. Two weeks of group drills. Then two exhibition games. Then the season. An hour each week. Not a lot of time to turn kids into future NFL stars.
I came to love these kids. They just wanted to play. We didn't focus on scores. We didn't track stats. Everyone got to play. I think I did a fairly decent job of making sure everyone got equal time. I focused of teamwork and having fun.
At the end, everyone got a "participation" medal. After our last game, I gathered the kids and their parents together. I handed out each medal and made sure I referenced each kid's strength - what he or she brought to the team and to the field. EVERY kid brought something unique. We weren't good but they had heart. They KNEW they were getting beat but they got up, got back to the huddle, and went after it again. And, after getting beat by 40 points, they were mad that we couldn't play some more.
If all we are doing is noting "participation" - then we, as parents, as managers,as coaches are doing a very terrible job. And we need to look inward. Instead of participation - how about doing what I did:
- fastest
- no fumbles
- most heart
- dirtiest (in terms of mud accumulation)
- most energetic
Everyone walks away with more than - yeah I was there. That's just lame.
Posted by: mike lally | December 14, 2009 at 09:52 AM