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Hunger Pains
By John Grubbs
Can mediocrity dull the hunger pains for excellence? Can accepting the status quo doom your team to mediocrity? Staying hungry for that which provides the most benefit is extremely challenging and often illusive to many organizations. There are many factors that contribute to lost hunger. This article will focus on some common reasons we lose the drive toward excellence. Though not exhaustive, your team can certainly reach break-through by addressing these individually and collectively.
Finding success can be our worst enemy. This may sound crazy but marginal success can literally dull the pains that drive us toward excellence. Unhealthy food can kill the same hunger that the proper food can provide. This phenomenon was very evident just prior to recent recession. The robust economy created such abundance that business did not have to be excellent to succeed. Poor leadership and marginal management could not dampen the enormous opportunity the economy presented to companies. As success was delivered, the same companies lost the drive that overcame the organizational inertia to get started. Predictably, the first economic challenge put some of these organizations “out of our misery”. The fundamentals of hard work and determination to improve are absolute for long term success in a competitive market.
A lack of emphasis on employee development is also a key ingredient in the recipe for mediocrity. Failing to have a robust learning effort creates an environment where people become “comfortable” and are not challenged to grow and improve. Mediocre companies cannot afford to train while winning organizations understand that learning is a mandatory part of the business model for success. Doing more with less requires capable team members with the talent and flexibility to remove the barriers of “not my job” as is common for the organizational masses.
A recent USA Today survey revealed that 50% of companies plan to promote the best talent to keep them on the team as the economy recovers. 48% stated they would raise salaries as the primary strategy to keep from losing key players. The painful truth is that most companies have NO PLAN or strategy to keep the best and the brightest. Some companies take the people on the team for granted while spending little to nothing on the development of the same talent. This permeates the organization with mediocrity as no one is required to constantly improve performance. Over time, people can literally feel “entitled” to their job and get comfortable to the point of complacency.
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