If you weren’t one of the 172 million people that watched Super Bowl 51, you missed an exciting 17 minutes of football! With 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, the Atlanta Falcons were beating the New England Patriots by a score of 28 – 3. And then James White scored a TD on a 5 yard pass from Tom Brady. The 4th quarter started and Atlanta was still up 28-9. At this point, the Atlanta Falcons staff was setting up the champagne in the locker room getting ready for the celebration. In the 4th quarter, Tom Brady orchestrated 3 scoring drives, a field goal, a passing TD, and a rushing TD, by James White. That was a enough to take the game – for the first time in history – to Overtime. The first drive of OT, Brady took the team down and James White scored the winning TD.
Unless you don’t own a TV and have never heard of the game of football, you probably know Tom Brady. He is the Quarterback for the New England Patriots. And yes, I do believe that he will go down in history as one of the best, if not the best, QB to play the game. All that being said – remember, it takes a TEAM to win a game. On any given day, the person who does the best job could be anyone in the game. This is, in my opinion, what happened in the Super Bowl. While Brady orchestrated those drives, without James White, they don’t score the TD that tied the game or the TD that won the game. But it’s Tom Brady and Tom Brady is always great. That being said, the MVP should go to the person in THIS game that gave the best performance. Brady is a “given” because he is a superb QB. However, James White deserved this honor for this game.
In the PEO industry (or really any industry for that matter), how many times have you heard or even said yourself, “(He/She) is the top producer, the normal rules do not apply to them”. When you get a lead, who gets the lead? The person who you know will close the deal, right? Therefore, who is consistently at the top of the Leader Board? Don’t get me wrong, this is all great for the bottom line!! However, there are ramifications that go with that. The rest of the sales team becomes deflated because they DO have to follow all of the guidelines and their deals don’t close. The operations team will tell your MVP that they are breaking the rules. There will be heated discussions – but in the end, the MVP will win. Morale, across the board will suffer. Then, what will happen to the bottom line?
It may sound cliché, but the fact is that if your employees are happy their work output will be better and more productive. This doesn’t take TV’s in the breakrooms or a catered lunch once a month. What increases morale is giving everyone the chance to be the MVP on any given day, week, or month.
The New England Patriots are known for having a different “star” every Sunday, because nobody is really the “star”. Even Tom Brady was punished for not following the guidelines and had to sit out the first 4 games of the season. Yet, there they were on Super Bowl Sunday, playing in the biggest game of the year!! Unfortunately, executives other than those from the Patriots are responsible for choosing the MVP of the game. Therefore, Tom Brady was going to get that trophy with a Patriots win – no matter what. However, it has been widely publicized and discussed by Tom Brady himself that the real MVP of that game was James White.
Look at all of the MVP’s in your organization. Give them the opportunity to be the starter. Recognize them and tell everyone how great they are and what a difference they made in that day, that week or that month. Everyone will feel it and will strive to be your next MVP!
