Recently, on a corporate management training programme, our group had the opportunity to explore issues related with inclusion and exclusion and its relation with creativity and initiative.

We were conducting a programme for a team of senior executives who were competent on a professional level, and the chief stated objective was to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and individual performance. The organization was planning incentives and rewards for the high performers, and the group was largely unexcited by the plans.

Group discussions and exploratory conversations led us to realize that the group did not truly believe that the organization wanted them to assert their personal authority and that if they did so, they would be harmed in some way. On the other hand, there was no shortage of leadership, risk taking, creativity and competencies. Just this strange ceiling which was very difficult to define.

Further explorations and analysis of data from team building activities indicated instances we could inquire about and we finally realized that, while the rewards highlighted the outstanding performers, those who were hard workers, but lacked exceptional talent, were unaffected by them. Worse, they also were to some extent demotivated by the high targets that were required to achieve them, and actually lost interest in the whole thing, including the inclination to push their performance to greater heights.

An intense discussion between the “seniors” and this team followed, where the team expressed feelings of being unappreciated and their resentment at being aimed toward the highest possible target within the group. Most of them would not be able to achieve that, and hence they weren’t even trying. The ones capable of achievement were not interested, because they perceived it as a possible cause for being excluded by the others by further reinforcing differences. It was a strange situation where most of the people in the team were stuck at one point – they wanted appreciation and acknowledgment, and they wanted to be accepted regardless of their strengths and failures.

On another level, the available supporting structures were not adequate for the kind of all out effort needed, and the ‘proven winners’ were the relative ‘haves’ while the others were ‘have nots’.

The “seniors” on their part were not aware that this was a problem and they had missed out the group dynamics in this team completely. It was difficult to reach a point of compromise and move ahead of blame games and see what could be done.

Outstanding employees are rare, and the majority of an organization comprises of ‘mediocre’ professionals that are pretty much similar to anywhere else. We saw the need to encourage individuals, at their level, and came up with options of less extravagant, but easily achievable rewards and a system of letting employees choose their targets in unusual situations. Needless to say, each employee, now was interested in making efforts towards a goal, that they knew they could achieve with the right efforts.

What we did, in reality was learned to see that what we call mediocre, is actually a veritable storehouse of creativity and potential, which is somehow getting lost in the expectations made from them. Accepting that those expectations were unrealistic opened the way for teamwork that paved the way far greater achievements that were actually delivered.

This lies at the foundation of transformational leadership.

This is probably one of the most common situations in organizations in one form or the other.

As a leader, do you have a story when you were able to free your team from the prison of expectations and set them free to reach as high as they could, in their own ways?

(Post originally published on the 15th August 2006, republished to be a part of the Leadership Development Online Course)