The 2010 Olympics are over, and you can’t help but feel just a little bit of a loss. The pride and patriotism that comes with rooting for Team USA – even if you have no idea what curling is or why it’s so darn popular in Canada – fills us up for 17 days every two years. Now that they’re over, though, we can look back and see what lessons can be learned.
- Follow through on new projects is very important – NBC’s inexplicable decision to cut away from the closing ceremony abruptly to air a new show would lead one to think that NBC didn’t feel the closing ceremony for the Olympics – the world’s chance to get closure on an extremely emotional event – was important. If you are implementing a big project or process, and you put a lot of time and effort into the launch, you need to keep up the momentum. If you abruptly move on to the next thing, employees are going to perceive it as insignificant, and all the hard work you put into it will have been for naught. Or, even worse, make you look bad.
- It really is all about your people. As Dan Wetzel points out, the Olympics weren’t great because of the logistics; they were great because the Canadian people embraced these Olympics like they had never embraced the Olympics before. You can market your brand or your project all you want, but at the end of the day, your people have to embrace it to really make it successful.
- Forget Employee of the Month programs. Recognize amazing employees when they do amazing things. Joannie Rochette won the bronze medal in figure skating just days after her mother passed away suddenly. Petra Majdic won a bronze model in cross-country skiing with four broken ribs and a punctured lung. Bill Demong became the first American ever to win a gold medal in the Nordic combined. Shaun White and Torah Bright pushed snowboarding to new limits. The list goes on and on. You know you have employees who are amazing and go above and beyond every day, but never get the recognition they deserve. Remember, these are the employees who make your company great, and you want them to go on keeping your company great.
- Treat everyone equally. Jacques Rogge, IOC president, shows favoritism to athletes from the powerhouse countries. So when Evgeni Plushenko showed poor sportsmanship after Evan Lysacek won the gold medal in men’s figure skating, Rogge stood up for Plushenko. However, when Usain Bolt showed poor sportsmanship when he won a gold medal in Beijing, Rogge verbally flogged him for it. Employees know when you play favorites, and it creates poor morale in the office. You should always make sure that all policies are applied equally and fairly.
Sure, I won’t miss the continuing saga of Lindsay Vonn vs. Julia Mancuso, or the antics of Evgeni Plushenko. But at least by remembering all of the great things that took place during the last few weeks and trying to keep that spirit alive until London in 2012, we can hold onto a little piece of the awesomeness that is the Olympics.
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