We all desire plenty of votes, let me give you a few examples.
Votes from our parents, to confirm we are enough. Votes from our teachers, to confirm we are worthy students. Votes from our employers, to confirm we make a great contribution. Votes from our peers, to be recognised and feel like we belong to the tribe. Votes from our friends and families all over social media, non-stop confirmation that we are loved. Votes from our industry in the form of awards to prove that our company is among the best in the industry, in our region, in the world etc.
Why?
Everyone wants to be loved, feel good enough, feel recognised and we are constantly looking for this throughout our lives, it shows up everywhere!
Even when I’m writing this I need you to agree with me, that you can see what I’m saying is true, confirmation that I’m enough.
We are already enough, but we don’t wish to accept it.
This is the human experiment, the human drama, all of our individual stories acting out every single day, searching for approval, searching for acceptance, for love and belonging.
Look in the mirror and there you will find it all the votes you need!
This question comes up regularly for me and when I received the following message twice in two different social media inboxes, I am convinced they probably are.
Hi. I feel honoured and humble that I have been nominated for ‘the Most Inspirational Person of the Year Award’. The winner is selected by the public and the public vote is now open until 20th July. I would be grateful if you could please vote for me.
Please click the link and it will take you to the voting page then select, ‘the Most Inspirational Person of the Year Award’ and vote for me. Please ask your friends, family and contacts to vote for me too. Thank you for your support.
I was especially astounded with the last sentence.
Ask friends, family and contacts!
What?
Not only are you asking me to vote for you, when I have totally no idea if you are in fact ‘The most inspirational person of the year’ and then you ask me to get my friends, family and contacts to vote for you too?
You really can not be serious, can you?
Totally serious, this is how business awards get awarded. Get yourself nominated and then go after your connections and beg them to vote for you.
I will never believe another business award again. In fact I’ve never believed them or taken part for this very reason. In fact I know of organisations that will even ask you to fill out a questionnaire to nominate yourself. Nominate yourself and then collect votes.
So I have concluded that business awards fulfil two needs, number one, the organising event or organisation needs more publicity for themselves and number two the actual individual needs more publicity for themselves. Basically they both need more recognition and appreciation from the public. In a word they need more love.
By getting complete strangers to vote for you, it actually is no different from wishing that people clap, like, comment or heart your content.
As humans we will never self-actualise on the basis that we’re always looking for something outside of ourselves.
My wish for the awards business is to start awarding teams, not individuals, not for the good they do in society or our communities but for the good they do for themselves. Teams that have successfully reinvented themselves despite the hardships they’ve had to endure in years gone by. Real hardships not some made up award category like ‘The most inspirational person of the year!’.
Just be ‘The most inspirational person of the year to yourself’ and avoid needing other people’s endorsement to say so.
It’s that time of year when the award ceremonies are taking place in the world of celebrities. The Baftas, The Grammys, The Oscars etc.
But we also have awards closer to home. Business awards, County awards, Industry awards in every single industry sector and of course then there are personal awards, awards given out by The Queen.
And really what does it actually all mean?
Does your popularity rise?
Do you earn more money?
Are you able to get a table faster at your favourite restaurant?
Will you be admired by your peers, who may aspire to be like you instead of themselves?
And what about the losers? The ones that were nominated to keep the suspense alive, but missed out on the night. What about them? Are they any less worthy?
I have been invited to many award ceremonies in Birmingham, I’ve even been given free tickets and apart from when something genuinely came up, I have avoided them all. I was even nominated for one and still didn’t go.
I feel that it creates a divide in society, it shows us that some in society are actually better than you, have achieved more than you. It doesn’t mean that the awarded individual or organisation is bad, of course they are not, but do they really need the award to make them feel better about themselves?
Is it proof that they are more worthy of recognition compared to the ones who were nominated but lost out? We never remember those that were nominated and still some of those will include this statistic on their profiles, their websites and in their bios.
‘Nominated for blogger of the year’.
Nominated means you lost, so why even promote it! Well, you were in the running so that’s also special. It means your peers who were never in the running are the real losers. They might as well pack up and go home, because they never stood a chance anyway.
