A few years back I received a national award for work that I had done. I was kind of psyched about it. I had to travel to the ceremony in New York City for the banquet. I sat there pretty much unaware of this specific award. The banquet started and as the names were announced, I was shocked. These were all people and companies that were on the “A” list. Household names. And I was receiving the highest award I could possibly receive for what I do. But there was a problem. What I was receiving an award for wasn’t my best work. Far from it. Why wasn’t I receiving the award for my more groundbreaking achievements? Because there are problems with awards. Serious problems.
Awards are usually associated with peer recognition where others who do what you do identify you as being the best, a leader, a visionary. And although that is true for the most part, there maybe other reasons you were nominated, and other reasons you won. I’ve been part of the awards process of one top industry organization in its field and I currently vote in one of the top, well-known awards ceremony in the United States. I also have won many awards, and lost many as well. Awards seem to be part of our culture. We like to rank things and awards helps us to do that. It’s something we are proud of, and usually add them to our resume.
You probably have noticed that many awards ceremonies have been coming under scrutiny. Televised awards shows are showing less viewers and there always seems to be a scandal associated with them. The public is coming to realize what I have discovered awhile ago. Awards are broken.
When I was a part of the one industry-leader awards ceremony, I realized being the best was just part of the selection process. Who my company was trying to get more business from mattered. Who spent the most dollars? Who was the nicest? Who is a favored owed to? Who hasn’t won in a while? Who wins too much? These and other criteria factored into the selection process. Although I generally didn’t vote in this in particular, my work on them was on the back end, I sometimes was asked to. There were times I wanted to expose this for the fraud it was but I think many people caught on it was not 100% legitimate. Again, these were the top awards for that specific industry. These awards were important for the winners, not to mention their marketing departments.
For most award considerations, there is a process. You submit your work or whatever is being judged, and you pay a fee to enter. There is fee is for each submission and it can be hundreds of dollars, thousands if you submit multiple submissions. If you submit one thing, and it wins, you may be more inclined to submit more the following year. Money is being made by the organization that does the awards. It’s a lot like the slot machine in a casino. When it pays off you feel lucky and keep putting more money in, hoping it pays off it again. And just like the slot machine, you win a little and you lose a little. This is what keeps many awards programs alive. There also is a prestige element. Submissions from highly respected individuals and companies add to the prestige of the award and those submissions will probably win regardless, just to keep the level of integrity up for that awards program.
Every year I vote for a very well-known awards program. I have mixed feelings about it. In some regard I feel wrong about judging one thing over another. Even if the awards program is totally legitimate, I don’t know why we have to compare two very good choices and say one is better. When I do vote, I follow the rules and try my best to be open-minded. I do enjoy getting exposed to things I may not have had the opportunity to be exposed to if I wasn’t a judge.
When I have received awards, I did add them to my resume but I can’t say it ever helped. Accolades can be seen as valueless or as braggadocious. Employers may see me as someone they can’t afford or someone with high expectations. Anymore I’m not sure if I should have them on my resume at all.
I once worked for a company that had a brainstorming retreat on a beach every year. At the end of the retreat an award was given to the person with the best idea/presentation. They would receive an iPad. I certainly could have followed the rules to try and win but one year I did something totally different. I performed a social experiment. Instead of being the best, I focused on winning. I focused on the iPad and what I needed to do to win it. This was totally unlike me, I didn’t want the iPad, but I was curious on if it would work. My whole presentation was geared to the personality of each judge. What I knew appealed to them. I won. What I learned was just because you received an award or win anything for that matter, doesn’t mean you were the best. Don’t take that too hard. This isn’t every award and accolade and usually you really do have to be good to be in the ballgame at all. You know what your best work is. It doesn’t take an award to prove that. Showing your best work is more important than showing the award for something that isn’t your best and if you receive an award for what you think was your best then congratulations!