Wondered what gaslights the top performers in any organisation...? Let me share the 5 top let-downs ...
1. Not recognised - despite giving path breaking performance there is just no mention, no recognition nor any reward forthcoming even in the form of a bouquet of flowers....as if nothing in the world happened. Life 'jaisey thay'.
2. Lost in Socialisation - organisational leadership is inclined to socialize rewards . Unfortunately, they believe- Spread the joy than pay the performer ! They are worried that the average performers (majority in number) will get demotivated if a few good performers are identified and rewarded. We need 'work- horses' is their argument. The larger malaise and unintended consequence of differentiated performance rewarding is demotivating the average performers. Thus organisations avoid rewarding better performers for fear that it would upset the performance meters in the organisation.
3. Insignificant Differentiator ... the reward difference given to the top performers and that given to the average performers is so insignificant that it tends to ridicule the efforts, time and energy put in by the top performers to give better performance compared to the average performers. This erosion in Differentiator causes demotivation to the energy, efforts and skills pit in by the top guys.
4. Sabotaged ... the performance of the better performer is surreptitiously snatched from under his feet and shown as performance of the average or low performers at the very last moment and the significant performer is ignored but the non- performer is rewarded for the work actually done by the better performer.
5. Ridiculed ... the great path redefining performance is not recognised because the leaders at the top are not able to appreciate the quality, efforts, capabilities and analyse results of such superior performers.
Have you ever been a victim of such a situation ? Most may have experienced it at most some of time or the other.
Critical however is for us as leaders to ensure that we lead the journey of success in our teams, positively. Performance is the centrifugal force driving results, how we as leaders should not tacitly or actively, knowingly or politically involve in gaslighting the performance of the better players on our team recognizing the above gaslighting triggers
Absolutely true...your analysis is as always so enlightening
Hello Sir,
Each word mentioned here is pure truth.
In short, 12 years of my corporate career I have faced this issue everywhere inspite of being a stupendous performer. I started working at the age of 19 yrs, even before my graduation results were out. Worked for 5 yrs then cracked entrance exam to go MBA in marketing with my own earned money.. Worked with the best yet this issue was consistently creating hindrance. I loved my work to the core but was not cutout for office politics which meant pulling down top performers at all cost. Finally at the age of 31 years only I gave up my promising corporate career and dedicated my time to bring up my…