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Why giving everyone a trophy dumbs down the country

 

Guest articles > Why giving everyone a trophy dumbs down the country

 

by: Lisa Earle McLeod

 

You’re sooo special, and to show you just how special you are, we’re giving you a trophy.

Of course, we’re also giving a trophy to every other player on the team. It doesn’t matter whether you played or not, whether the team won or lost, or even if you came to all the practices; everybody gets a trophy.

Call me a killjoy, and trust me, many have, but I don’t think giving away token trophies inspires anyone to new heights of improved performance. Nor do I think it builds self-esteem.

I also think it’s bad for business, because it sets a tone of rewarding mediocrity.

I work with sales organizations and I can assure you, the people at the bottom of the pack don’t get awards at the annual meeting. Nor does the marketplace give “You’re so special” trophies to companies with declining revenues

As parents, we’ve long been told that we should build our child’s self-esteem. As a business consultant, I coach leaders to give positive feedback because positive reinforcement builds skills and confidence. It improves company morale and it encourages people to do more of what they’re already doing right.

But if you gush over mediocrity, there’s no way to distinguish truly outstanding. If the losers get the same trophies as the winners, what’s the point of even trying?

Kids aren’t stupid; they know it when you’re feeding them a line. And they’re not wimps either. Sitting with the sting of a loss isn’t the worst thing in the world. The pain of losing is often what inspires us to do better.

The “special” movement has gone so overboard with meaningless praise that people, particularly children, have lost the concept of internal pride.

It started with good intentions. Many of us were raised by well-intended, overly-critical parents. People who truly loved their children, yet who tended to focus on the negative, asking why the A minus wasn’t an A plus, bringing up the strike-out instead of the winning score, and generally being stingy with the compliments.

People raised in that type of environment often correctly ascertain that they would have been happier, and probably done better in life, if they’d been given more positive reinforcement.

We vowed to do better, so we tell our kids they’re wonderful all the time. The problem is, it doesn’t work.

Rewarding poor performance doesn’t make people feel better; it just makes you look like an idiot who doesn’t know the difference between a good job and a bad one.

The challenge as a boss or parent is to master the duality of praising the inherent worth of the person and give them accurate feedback at the same time.

We need to be smart enough to say, “You’re the best son anyone could ask for, and your team didn’t do so well this season.”

Or to an employee, “You’re a smart person. You’re going to have to do better on this project if you want to get promoted.”

We need to tell people the truth, be they kids or colleagues.

Building self-esteem isn’t about pretending that people are winners at everything. It’s about providing people with the internal fortitude to rebound when they fail. It’s about nurturing their spirit and developing their character.

It’s about caring enough to say, “When I watch you run down the soccer field, my heart bursts with love because I think you’re magnificent. But the other team won so they get to take home the trophy.”

 


Business strategist Lisa Earle McLeod is President of McLeod & More, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in sales force and leadership development. A sought after keynote speaker, she is the author of The Triangle of Truth, a Washington Post Top 5 Business Book for Leaders.

www.TriangleofTruth.com  Copyright 2011, Lisa Earle McLeod. All rights reserved.


Contributor: Lisa Earle McLeod

Published here on: 26-Jun-11

Classification: Business

Website: www.TriangleofTruth.com

 

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

| Home | Top | Menu | Quick Links |

© Changing Works 2002-
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