Giving everyone trophies diminishes their value

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Anthony Kendrick
  • 60th Medical Group
I grew up being conditioned that we live in a competitive world.

If you want to succeed at something, you have to work at it by devoting time, effort and energy to make people take notice. Some people may be more talented than you, but that is beyond your control. 

Like most people around my age, 44, I have noticed a change in expectations over the years. It's as if people want a high standard of achievement with the least amount of effort. Parents who have an inflated idea of how good their kid is fuel that attitude. 

Why is the Lombardi Trophy so special? Why is the World Cup trophy so great? Because not everyone gets to hold those trophies over their heads and call themselves great.

There is a time and place to recognize all members of the team and everyone in a unit for their sacrifice and service to the mission.  It's more about understanding how to accept a loss and turning a negative into a positive -- something we all must learn and if we are always assuming that, no matter what, we will be rewarded, then where is the drive and motivation to perform beyond expectations?

Here is one example of how this mind set crept into Air Force culture.

The enlisted performance report culture we created over the years resulted in 90 percent of Airmen receiving the top marking of 5 on their performance reports, according to deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, at Air Force Headquarters. We effectively made the report useless at times in order to delineate level of performance. The typical response supervisors would hear from their leadership was if they didn't receive a 5, they would not be able to get a medal when they changed duty stations and it would hurt their career.

Often times, the expectation would be a 5 as long as the member came to work and didn't get in trouble. The only way for many "participation trophy winners" to find out how they truly measure up against their peers is to look at their board score, which shows their relative standing among peers. With the overall in the enlisted evaluation system, refocusing on job performance and feedback the right Airmen gets the trophy.

The culture sets in the mind an unrealistic expectation -- if I show up and participate, I get an award. You see everyone getting the same award regardless of the level of actual achievement attained.  No wonder a growing number of people have a sense of entitlement.  Believe me, I liked winning far more than losing when I played sports or competed for something. 

The older I get, the more I realize that failure has been a good teacher.  You have to fall off the bicycle a few times in order to learn how to stay upright. Failing at a single attempt is not failing at life. In the grand scheme of things, failure is as vital to high levels of achievement as is the hard work and the effort required to excel.

If we give all Airmen a trophy, it has no meaning to the actual winner. If all of your co-workers were average at their job, but you were doing great and someone else gets the quarterly award, it has no meaning to you.

I'm just saying that we need to prepare our Airmen to fly, fight and win.