Oscar Snubs in the Workplace
Last night, many of us watching the Oscars felt that Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon, was snubbed when Emma Stone was awarded the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Poor Things. Previously, many also felt that Greta Gerwig was snubbed for not even receiving a nomination for Best Director for Barbie.
There were other disappointments for fans. There always are.
It happens at work as well. Every day.
My third year in the Army I received an award snub as well as an unexpected award. My Commander came to me one day and informed me that our motor pool had just failed an inspection badly and that the inspectors were coming back in two weeks, and we needed to fix every deficiency. He then assigned me the duty to manage a complete overhaul in that short period of time. I gathered a small team, and we inspected every truck, fixed countless issues, and then did it all over again. We painted the entire motor pool. We cleaned every tool by hand. We corrected and updated every single record. We worked late into the night to get everything done on time.
On inspection day we not only passed but earned perfect scores. The inspector noted that he had never seen such an amazing turnaround in such a short time. There was no award. Not even a thank you.
A few months later we had faced an unannounced exercise drill with our Hawk Missile system. I was the lead Platoon Leader. The exercise was over in less than two hours. I was awarded the Army Achievement Medal (AAM) for my performance. In that moment the fallacy of awards became a clear and enduring concept to me. I will forever be proud of my role in turning that motor pool around. It might have even saved lives. The AAM that rested above the pocket of my uniform meant nothing to me.
Fast forward 40 years. My supervisor issued me a letter of reprimand for something I did not believe I deserved. Even the investigator said there were no grounds, but my supervisor chose to punish me anyway. Small matter. No matter. During that same period, the outreach team I was leading set all kinds of records for communicating with and helping survivors through COVID. The details are too much to capture here but took two pages to sum up in the award write-up.
We won the award, and the same supervisor came to my office, closed the door and informed me that everyone else would receive the award but since I had received administrative punishment within the year I would not be listed as one of the recipients. I thought it was funny how she referred to my punishment passively, while she was the one who administered it. She looked nervous as she told me about my exclusion. I simply responded with, “Thank you for letting me know.” She paused a bit longer, expecting more, and then departed, looking relieved that it went so easy.
She had no idea that I had come to terms with the fallacy of awards four decades prior. There will always be people who get awards that some others do not believe were warranted. There will always be people who are snubbed that clearly deserve more. There are too many factors at play, to include the frailty and individuality of human judgment.
Just like the motor pool, neither she nor the lack of an award can ever take away from the historic accomplishment of every member of our team. Also like the motor pool, I believe our efforts were lifesaving.
My comfort in all of this is due to learning the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
Intrinsic motivation is when someone is motivated by personal desires.
Extrinsic motivation is when they're motivated by possible rewards or to avoid consequences.
Intrinsic will never let you down. Extrinsic awards and consequences are wobbly, rickety, unreliable, and unpredictable. They are meaningful-adjacent and valuable-curious.
Awards can be nice. Sometimes they hit the mark. But they do not define the person nor the effort. I don’t need an award for writing this editorial today. That neither motivates me nor measures me.
Lily Gladstone and Greta Gerwig did not receive Oscars. But they know what they accomplished. And so do countless others.
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We didn't watch the Oscars as we hadn't seen any of the movies.... OK, except for Barbie which my wife watched on our flight to or from Italy. So my only connection to this editorial was my experiences with performance awards which occurred long before working with Dan. I'll give two examples...one I enjoyed, and one I found frustrating. Both were in Real Estate development...and both were related to each other and $ income. I probably liked the first simply because it provided a sizable and generally reliable addition to my annual salary. My boss was a finance guy and he would meet with the parent officers once a year to set our goals. The major benchmarks were typically rental rate, ($/sf) and occupancy (%). My boss would negotiate achievable goals and my job was to beat those goals. I don't remember any we missed or did not surpass the mark. Note there was some wiggle room...lower the rate where needed to increase occupancy...just don't be obvious. I also was tasked to assemble the yearly presentation (slides rather than PowerPoint). Each year, I would pack up the projectors and slides in a flight case...hoping my boss would not fail us. Years later I learned that he never presented as it would make all other profit centers look too bad. For the record, we always had the highest occupancy and highest rental rate in the San Fernando Valley, CA.Yes, The Galleria of Valley Girl fame, and those movies helped us to get those bonuses. The next example comes from another reincarnation of that management team, but with a different supervisor for me. This time the company had a bonus program that involved personal and company achievements. Interestingly but also unfortunately, it seemed to me that every year I excelled, the company did not do that well (and vice/versa). I finally told my supervisor that I would strive to do the best I could, every day, and hope that he would find a way to compensate me accordingly. Last thought...as I said this was substantially the same company, so perhaps a difference of LA vs Philly. But also empowerment vs stay in your place. Ed.
LOVE this!