At Least Participation Trophies Require Participation…

Since we’ve developed a foundation for some of the biggest challenges we’re facing in the workplace today, let’s move our focus so, just maybe, we can stop treating the symptoms and start addressing what’s actually causing those challenges! And even if we can’t resolve them for the entire world around us, we can put things in place to insulate the teams we’re leading against the majority of those challenges!

Every time that Cindy and I have kicked off our Emerging Leader Development course, whether that’s been virtually for folks across the country or face to face with a team of supervisors and managers for one of our corporate clients, I show the group a certificate of completion they’ll be able to EARN as they complete the requirements of the course. I go on to emphasize that “it ain’t tee ball; there’s no trophy just for showing up…” I do that for a few reasons; I want the businesses each participant is a part of to get real tangible value from what they learn through the course, I’m committed to helping drive that return on investment to whoever has paid us to provide that material for their team, and I want them to understand from the very beginning that leadership requires action!

All that said, I suppose I shouldn’t be so hard on tee ball - as far as I can tell, you still have to at least participate to get a trophy there. That’s not necessarily the case with our economic system today, and it hasn’t been for a while!

As we started down this path, I mentioned that I believe a severe lack of accountability is one of the biggest challenges every business deals with today. A friend of mine who heads up a majority industry peer group recently shared an article called Why the worker shortage is here to stay citing some of the challenges in the workforce today, and the first challenge that article detailed was something I’ve been barking about for years: workforce participation! Through the four years that I served on the executive committee for our local workforce development board, the unemployment percentage and overall labor pool were frequent topics. Just prior to Covid shutting the world down, we saw historically low unemployment numbers; locally, at the state level, and nationally. One thing that’s always seemed off limits to even discuss has been the workforce participation rate…

One of my favorite TV shows of all time is Leave it to Beaver. As a stereotypical family of that time, Ward was the breadwinner and June took care of things at home. While that was indeed the norm then, I haven’t known of many single income families in my lifetime. However, while the unemployment rate in Virginia was under 3% in late 2019, the workforce participation rate was only around 65%. Since most of us never hear about that, it’s defined as the number of people between 16 & 65 who participate in the workforce - excluding those who are in the military or are incarcerated.

Let that simmer a bit before I move on… 1 out of every 3 working-aged people you walked by on any given day in 2019 had no intention of working. Based on the Help Wanted signs we see everywhere we turn today, I struggle to think that the workforce participation rate has stayed that high…

OK, Wes… Why the soapbox rant? Back to accountability! There’s a book that I’ve read that says “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10 if you’re not familiar) Don’t misunderstand me on this either, I’m all for helping those in need - that’s exactly why we’ve partnered with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank for our LIVE2LEAD:Harrisonburg event for the last several years! But I believe it's more than just a challenge our workforce is facing for so many capable people to be enabled to avoid making a positive contribution to society. I am absolutely convinced this lack of participation has morphed into even bigger issues.

Yes… Even bigger than not getting a trophy! So that’s where we’ll pick up next time…