{"id":955,"date":"2018-06-23T05:28:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T05:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/?p=955"},"modified":"2018-06-23T05:31:32","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T05:31:32","slug":"careful-what-were-teaching-kiwi-kids-kiwi-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/rwc-blog\/careful-what-were-teaching-kiwi-kids-kiwi-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Careful What We’re Teaching Kiwi Kids, Kiwi Adults !"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog has been inspired by a conversation that my 11 year old daughter instigated with me following her hockey game today. I write this with as much control as I can muster over my emotions, suppressing the anger within as I do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

My daughter asked me in a voice of disbelief why the person who was awarded “Player of the Day” today was given this award despite them not having performed at a level that warranted this recognition. I didn’t think today would be the day – with my daughter being just 11 years of age – that I would find myself introducing my daughter to the concept of “political correctness” – and my heart sank and my anger rose as I proceeded to explain the following.<\/span><\/p>\n

I explained that “political correctness” is an adult invention to try and soften relationships between people; an attempt to create greater “fairness” among all. I also explained that “political correctness” attempts to reward everyone the same, and treat everyone the same – despite there being people who are certainly better at doing certain things than others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By this point\u00a0in the conversation I was thinking to myself yet again “god help New Zealand that we’ve slipped this far that I’m explaining to my 11 year old daughter why people who apply themselves fully in order to win aren’t then recognised as winners”. I avoided talking about New Zealand’s “tall poppie” syndrome with my daughter…for now.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sad aspect of what my daughter – and others like her – experienced (and will continue to experience through life) is that she\/ others who are orientated towards applying herself\/ themselves fully in order to try and realise a top result are learning that:<\/span><\/p>\n

a) Winners aren’t necessarily recognised by others as being winners.<\/span><\/p>\n

b) Reward for effort\/ performance doesn’t always stand true.<\/span><\/p>\n

c) Give credit where credit is due doesn’t always stand true.<\/span><\/p>\n

d) People who don’t achieve or perform at the same level as “winners” can receive the same recognition as those who excel at what they do.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real problem that I have with all of the above is that kids in this country are actually being taught that “as long as I turn-up and do my best I’m likely to receive a reward for that level of effort”. When I think about this expectation in a business environment context, this sort of person is exactly the sort of person who I won’t<\/strong> choose to have on my team. Why ? Because they are the sort of person who will do just enough to stay just above the “expected performance line” and no more, and their expectation will generally be that they should be paid maximum remuneration in return for their mediocre performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What the above adult “politically correct” ploy is actually serving to do is cause high achieving kids to question why they should apply themselves so thoroughly to tasks\/ activities\/ sports. How do you think this translates into adult aptitude, performance and achievement in the workplace ? Sad…sad…sad.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Wake up New Zealand and grow a back bone before our kids develop an even greater sense of entitlement for doing not much in return !!!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog has been inspired by a conversation that my 11 year old daughter instigated with me following her hockey game today. I write this with as much control as I can muster over my emotions, suppressing the anger within as I do so. My daughter asked me in a voice of disbelief why the person who was awarded “Player of the Day” today was given this award despite them not having performed at a level that warranted this recognition.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":958,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}