In our nearly obsessive focus on the exceptional, we have also gone too far in ignoring average performance.
When was the last time someone thanked you for doing an average job? Still thinking? Well that’s not surprising. Our culture is designed to reward exceptional performance in both personal and professional settings. If a sales manager achieves their quota right on time and right on budget, the reward they receive is the privilege of keeping their job. To an extent, this is reasonable because treating anything and everything as exceptional would eventually lead to rewarding employees simply for showing up. But in our nearly obsessive focus on the exceptional, we have also gone too far in ignoring average performance. Not only does average performance not get rewarded, in many cases it is frowned upon. The expectation is for everyone to be exceptional, which is statistically and logically impossible. Companies that institute this type of culture are making a big mistake.
Average performance and average employees play a vital role in any company. Someone has to support the superstars! More importantly, these employees are competent at executing tasks associated with their jobs and comply with the terms of employment. It’s that competence that can make or break a company. Having a superstar sales team is a tremendous asset, but it’s the folks that do an average job in accounts receivables and at the warehouse that actually convert that sale into money for the company.
It’s also important to keep in mind that only a small minority of your employees will ever be exceptional; they are indeed the exception. Failing to acknowledge average performance will impact the majority of your staff. This is the hidden threat of average employees—they won’t mind leaving. A recent study by Globoforce shows that “average” workers at companies are most susceptible to overtures by competitors and are most open to new opportunities.
The subpar employees are happy just to have a job and unfortunately won’t be that easy to eliminate. The superstars are more than likely well compensated, otherwise they would be superstars somewhere else. But the average employees, while performing as expected, feel unappreciated. Their thinking is that perhaps someone else will recognize their efforts and they are willing to give a job at a different company a chance.
If you are concerned that maybe you haven’t been as attentive as you should have been to your average employees, consider these ideas to help rectify that.
Organize team-based awards. Rather than solely rewarding exceptional individual performance at your company, consider also developing team or departmental awards. This will allow all members to feel like winners even those that perform at an average level.
Update your performance scoring system. Many standard performance reports use language that can be construed as negative to reflect average performance. Consider rephrasing reports so they highlight the important nature of average work.
