Obama: Employee of All Time?

Employers give prizes to honor employees. Organizations award prizes to recognize accomplishments. The most renowned are the Nobel Prizes. If we weave the Nobel Prizes into today’s workplace, one might conclude that President Barack Obama, this year’s Peace Prize recipient, has been named “Employee of All Time.” Click here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The five Norwegians on the Nobel Peace Prize Committee have tried to explain and defend their decision. Former winners and world leaders have had mixed views. Critics of the decision say it’s inexplicable.

Perhaps peace is so remote that only its hope is honored. Yet, when Alfred Nobel established the Peace Prize, he declared the winner “during the preceding year . . . shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”

Does Obama, at this point, rank with the likes of Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mikhail Gorbachev, Elie Wiesel, Desmond Tutu, and Lech Walesa? Even the President readily admits he doesn’t.

Review the list of Peace Prize winners, and it’s easy to unerstand why controversy often surrounds this award. Even those remembered for the Nobel Committee’s bold recognition of them are subject to question. Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin, two of the most daring peacemakers ever, saw their lives end with arguably little to show for their effort.   

Critics of this year’s decision say the committee strayed from Alfred Nobel’s intent. But that can be said of past decisions. Nobel said the award should go to someone for work done “in the preceding year.” The winners we admire most were recognized for their cumulative, lifetime efforts.

If you give prizes to employees, keep it up. If you’re criticized for a decision, take the criticism to heart. It’s important to try to get it right. It’s equally important to remind employees of the prize’s underlying meaning.

For another view on this subject, read Bill Bowser.