In 1993, Nike aired the (in)famous Charles Barkley “I Am Not A Role Model” commercial.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMzdAZ3TjCA&w=420&h=315]
It sparked a debate. Could high-paid professional athletes choose to be role models? Or were they role models because of their high profile positions, whether they liked it or not?
I sometimes wonder what would happen if Nike chose to sponsor other areas of life and shined a spotlight on intractable problems that are often dismissed as too mundane and not cool enough to debate so publicly. If Nike ever chose to make a commercial featuring a “bad boy” training professional, I imagine it might be scripted to look something like this:
I am not the solution to performance gaps.
I am not paid to be the solution to performance gaps.
I am paid to create amazing learning experiences that show employees what is possible.
Managers should be the solution to performance gaps.
Just because I score 5 out of 5 on an evaluation doesn’t mean I will solve your employees’ problems.
In the absence of Nike turning this into a commercial and then a national debate, feel free to start your own debate in the comments section. Do you think training professionals are the solution to performance gaps?
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