When the Best, Biggest and Most Successful Can Backfire

One of the things I love about writing for a blog and posting my opinions is I can write about virtually anything I have an opinion about and picture people reading it, nodding their heads in agreement.  Hopefully as I continue to blog I’ll write something that resonates with some folks or even challenges you.  Heck, since at this point since I’d he happy if someone other than my colleagues at Bloom Metz Consulting or my mother comments so bring it on … agreement, disagreement, etc.

One of the issues I’m sensitive to that is often an important part of the nonprofit organization experience is when we praise or recognize significant accomplishes.  There are probably blogs out there devoted to the subject of donor recognition which this is not, per se although it’s worth mentioning my bias is in favor of it.  Not only do I think nonprofits should recognize donors, but I also think nonprofits should have strategies for recognizing volunteers and staff.  Enough about that … I’ll save my recognition argument for when/if I ever devote a blog topic to it.

My beef today is about when recognition can sometimes backfire because I think it’s at the expense of others.  For example, it’s not uncommon to hear at a fundraising dinner or read an article that states “it was the best ever.”  Geez Louise … how do you think this makes the person who chaired the event last year feel?  They may even agree but what about the people who worked on the committee?  Is it really necessary to define something as the best rather than “it was a wonderful night”, “a great success”, etc.

In response to the obvious argument that “the best” can be an appropriate thing to say if indeed the objectives of the initiative were met at a higher quantifiable rate than ever such as more money raised, more people attended, etc. but has the person making the comment “it was the best ever” actually researched the history so they can make this claim with confidence or are they basing their comment on recent history or anecdotal information?  I even find the same thing happens when people say “for the first time ever.”

OK, by now if you’re still reading this you either agree with me or think I’m the most overly sensitive person in the whole world and I should get over it … it’s no big deal.  So yes, I agree there are bigger deals out there and more important offenses that take place in nonprofit life but it seems to me is an easy one to correct by simply by prefacing our comments with disclaimers such as “this is one of the best”, the “most successful in recent years”, etc.

So what do you think?