Incredibly Average

Now there's a goal!

I was having dinner with a radio friend recently when he told me his boss had announced to their whole team the "hope that we can just hit average this year."

I know there's been tons of pressure on the revenue side of our business, and that often the goals are unrealistic, but hoping for average? Seriously?

Does that mean that producing average takes a bit of heat off next year's target, lowers expectations rather than raising the bar yet again?

Or does it mean that his team has not been able to hit average for several years so that average would actually feel like excelling?

Either way, how does that motivate anyone?

And this person is running a group of stations in a really big market.

I am not one who believes that setting unrealistic goals drives people to work harder.

To the contrary, I think setting realistic goals, and reaching them, is what motivates most of us to set a new, higher goal and strive to reach that one too.

It boosts our confidence and our energy.

But surely our business hasn't reached the point where any company can be happy about management that hopes for average.

It's not a shortage of talent. I know experienced, capable, winning GMs with decades of proof of their leadership and management ability who could turn this one around, probably within weeks. At least the attitude part.

Are we really an industry that settles for average now?

All I can say is, "Go out and have an incredibly average day today."