And the Award Goes to …
by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com
Awards. What are they good for? Appreciation, recognition, a thank-you, achievements, validation, and more. The topic is on my mind after watching the Grammys, and whatever your political side, these artists should find another outlet to share their opinions. I think the chatter cheapens the value of a Grammy. Why not just smile and sing your song?
An award can be given in recognition of years of hard work and dedication. The recipient feels great, and the rest of the people feel they have something to strive for, and they can become motivated to win next time. Years ago, when it was really hard to find employees, I would joke that if someone showed up three days in a row, we should give them an attendance award. I was fortunate to have two employees who worked for over 20 years without even a single sick day. They deserve an award!
Not all awards are equal. One from your peers is different than an award from the general public. “Try our award-winning coffee” makes you question who gave the award, and who you competed against? A claim like that should be transparent with details to increase validity.
There are companies that you can pay to give you an award. Read that line again, it’s true! A marketing company once wanted $12,000 to have me named man of the year by some made-up association. Meanwhile, I could go to my local gift shop and have a plaque made for $20.
I’ve been presented with many awards, plaques, and certificates over the years… the office walls are full of them. When I moved six years ago, I took pictures of a lot of them – Knights of Columbus, church, Boy Scouts, the amusement industry, the Pinball Hall of Fame, awards from other pinball shows, wooden shoes, moonshine jugs, wine glasses, award documents rolled up like the Dead Sea Scrolls, and honors for games I helped to create. After taking the pictures, I kept some, tossed some, and sent others to pinball museums and the like. (One I kept was an IAAPA Brass Ring Award from 2012.)
I’ve eaten at award-winning restaurants only to have a terrible meal. Maybe they won the award 10 years ago and no longer have the same chef and staff. What’s important in business is not the honors but to rise above the noise. Your business needs to become famous for something. Differentiate yourself! If you have a pizzeria and there are 10 other pizza joints within a mile, how do you compete? Is it through price, quality, selection or size? Do you boast that your pizza won an award so new customers flock in for a pie? If there are contests that pick the best pizza, maybe you can win?
You could take to social media with videos showing how the pizza is made, served and enjoyed by customers along with their comments. You can show your valuable team members smiling, maybe giving an “employee of the month” award. There are many options.
Many years ago, I attended a communion breakfast at my Knights of Columbus council (Council 4541 in Canarsie). I put on a shirt and a pullover sweater and asked Joanne, “How do I look?” She told me, “You look great, but nobody’s looking at you!” in her typical teasing way. We got to the event, and almost all the men were wearing suits and ties. The guest speaker was the chancellor of New York City schools, who spoke about community service. At the end of his speech, he said they wanted to recognize someone who had been instrumental in building up the council’s activities and supporting its projects, bringing in members, and doing charitable work, etc. I thought this must be some great guy he’s talking about, and then he called my name! I was shocked. He handed me a plaque and asked me to say a few words, which I uncharacteristically kept short, saying thank you and promptly sitting down. To this day, whenever I ask Joanne, “How do I look?” I get the same answer from her, and we both get a good laugh.
Think about awards as rewards. Remember that a pat on the back and some appreciation for what other people do for us daily would go a long way in making this a better world, and making that a regular practice would truly be award-worthy.
Jack Guarnieri started servicing electro-mechanical pinball machines in 1975 and has been involved in every phase of the amusement game business since then. He was an operator in NYC, then began a distributorship in 1999, PinballSales.com, selling coin-op to the consumer market. In January of 2011, he founded Jersey Jack Pinball (named after his RePlay Magazine pen name), which builds award-winning, full-featured, coin-op pinball machines. Email Jack at [email protected].