Celebrate the “Nobody’s” ~ by Arnie Wohlgemut
A retirement celebration was planned for Oscar who was retiring from work after 33 years of service. Many gathered around to hear the speeches from coworkers, his team leader and upper management. As the formal part of the small in-house celebrations were ending, the General Manager asked him to say a few words.
Oscar thought for a moment, and after thanking everyone for coming, he turned to the manager and said: “For over 33 years I gave you my time and my hands. Sadly, you could have had this,” pointing to his head, “my insight and advise, but you never asked.“
~
I believe it is time to rethink how we reward people in our workplaces. Who and what we value and celebrate has not changed in a long time!
For the most part, we celebrate exceptional talents and gifts, that is why we have lifetime achievement awards in the Grammy’s, the Acadamy awards and others.
Other times we celebrate by handing out gold and platinum records to a successful artist, not because of their musical talent but on their ability to sell records.
At work we celebrate and reward those that meet the targets set for them. Strangely, we often not only reward them with a bonus, but a new higher target. (That to me does not sound like a ‘reward’.)
On the other end, we have diminished the work of all those people who ‘show up’ every day to either quietly work from home or work behind the scenes without being noticed. Like Oscar in the story above, if you were to ask them if they felt like they were making a difference within the company, many of them will say “I’m just a nobody”.
“I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas and has the courage to develop that potential.”
Brené Brown
A good friend of mine suggested that I add ‘how to be a good follower’ to the list of leadership workshops I provide. At the time, I had not considered that.
A recent conversation with my sister about my friend’s suggestion ‘how to be a good follower’ has led me to these questions:
- Why we do not celebrate consistency, or effort?
- Do we stand behind the belief that consistency and effort are hard to measure and therefore we cannot reward on that basis?
The answer – growth-focused brand of capitalism that has dominated economic life in the North America, Europe and elsewhere over the past 50 years. Our celebration of success was focused on financial growth, increased profits, market shares and value to the shareholders. After all, dollars and cents can be measured.
“Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.”
John C Maxwell
I believe it is time to celebrate those that are successfully doing their job every day using their varied abilities that we may see as disabilities or limited talents and gifts. They are in many cases putting in more effort than those that have “exceptional talents and gifts”.
They are the ones who influence others through their consistency and efforts. We should celebrate what we empowered them to do.
These are the good followers, and they lead by example.
It is time to acknowledge their contribution in our workplaces; be celebrated as a somebody – somebody that makes a valuable contribution every day.
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