“Mediocre people don’t like high achievers and high achievers don’t like mediocre people so if you let those two things co-exist on your team it’s never going to work out right.” Nick Saban
Want to demotivate someone who does an outstanding job for you? Pay little attention to them and pay more attention to your less than “A” players. It doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative attention, its attention. Pay them the same that you pay your less than “A” players, but give them less work because they aren’t performing. Give that work to your “A” players. I guarantee you your best performers will start to get frustrated and then you have one less “A” player on your team because they will either leave you or become one of “them”.
Although Nick Saban can’t pay players (let’s hope he’s not!), he realizes that the best way to sabotage a team is to allow players to stay on the team that don’t make a “choice” as he says be disciplined in their work and performance. “Discipline is something you choose. You choose it. It’s not God given, you do the right thing, the right way, the right time all the time- that’s a choice,” he says.
While recently attending a workshop presented by the Ritz-Carlton Center for Leadership, I heard the speaker site the statistic that 18% of people are disengaged workers. She called them “cave people” and said we (as leaders) spend way too much of our time on them. I think she is talking about the same “mediocre” crowd Saban is talking about. Our time spent away from intense focus on our A team keeps people away from leading championship teams.
Want to build a championship team? Get rid of your cave people; you’ll be doing everyone a favor, including them in the long run.
Want more on this topic?
Saban Quotes from “Nick Saban gives unexpected pep talk”
Leadership Lessons from College Football Post 1
