We like group projects. You get to interact with people of various skillsets with diverse ideas and take on enormous tasks by collaborating. When it’s all settled, everyone has their individual pieces to contribute to the success of the team. Of course, in many group projects, there is this thing that starts to rear its head after introductions and the division of work in a project. You start to realize through your regular updates and team meetings that a few team members are not doing the work. You try to put in extra time and effort to cover the gaps. You try not to bring it to your leader’s attention for fear of being a tattletale but you have to admit you’re extremely agitated. In some cases, you do bring it to a leader’s attention but the results are still the same, nothing. Everyone sees it, they are tired of the shenanigans and yet the project is over, it was a success and those slacking team members’ reputations are still intact. What just happened?

MEDIOCRITY ——–>>>

Is this the norm now? We accept mediocrity as above average or excellence?

It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. We’re going to let you in on a little secret, employees are not ignorant and they know what’s going on. Employees who do the work tend to notice when promotions and special opportunities have been made into a political game, a result in “who you know”, or a learn on the job leadership experiment.

Making mediocrity the norm changes the whole landscape of the work culture, causes resentment, and can lead to toxicity on teams. Organizations should play chess not checkers when it comes to strategically placing people who will foster a culture of excellence. When leaders accept mediocrity in the name of protecting people who look like them or because they were once a good individual contributor (of course they would be a good leader) or simple laziness, we literally create “work monsters”. Work monsters, who will make other employees lives a living hell. Mediocrity has the nerve to:

• Do performance reviews/make comp decisions
• Question others who are bringing value to the team and know what they are doing
• Make more money than the people rowing the boat
• Continually be given the grace to hold, keep, and move up in leadership positions

For some reason, we thought that hard work, dedication, and commitment to being strong servant leaders were some of the ultimate goals in organizations. If we look closely and ask the people working in most of these environments we will see that it’s not always the case.

When we tolerate mediocrity in our work environments we are asking our employees to pay a price. The price of not having a safe space, not having equal opportunity, suffering at the hands of a know-it-all by proxy of promotion, or favor and not being recognized for the real hard work. THAT PRICE IS TOO HIGH!

#dobetter