When my kids were young and were in organized sports, my daughter wasn’t the sports-type.  However I knew that team sports was so beneficial to the growth of a child.

My daughter would be out there looking at flowers, sitting down bored.  Disengaged.  As a dad I so wanted to see them engaged, and I would frequently cheer, holler and applaud for one minuscule fragment of effort.  It seemed that even just getting off the ground aroused a cheer from me.

My wife had the same experience when she was a child.  She didn’t care about soccer, she just wanted the ice cream bribe at the end of the game.

We found this to be a problem at my company.

We were new ownership on a team of well established people.  We were trying to win the hearts and minds of the people, and it didn’t work.  It seemed that we were over-appreciate, over cheering and over praising for people just showing up for work, or putting a piss-poor effort.  Heralding people for just doing their jobs.

We focused too much on a ‘we’re all friends’ great culture.

“How you manage underperforming staff reflects on how you value your whole team.”

There were some legitimate people putting in an effort that deserved praise, but for a lot of them, especially ones who have been there (and possibly felt they were untouchable) we continually cheered for them hoping one day they would just lift their asses off the soccer field.  We expected and asked more from them, but were too afraid to challenge because of the potential of them walking away. The entire team deserved more effort from them, but they only wanted was the ice cream at the end of the game.

We were celebrating mediocrity.  There were high paid people that weren’t going over and above what we asked, or anticipating significant needs of the company.  Ultimately that left us in the dark, and without information to make good business decisions.

We encouraged an environment, where putting piss poor effort was acceptable.  How you treat lack of performance reflects on how you value your team overall.

Don’t ever celebrate mediocrity.

You are not a charity, and there are no volunteers on your team.  You are signing everyone’s pay checks, and you demand excellence.

How you allow misbehaviour reflects on how you value the entire team.