As we continue to examine the six fundamental value pairs, today we explore values at work. The Farmer and The Olympian describe how we approach work, how we evaluate our performance, and how we gain and retain motivation.
The Farmer
The Farmer toils day after day in the fields to cultivate a generous bounty to feed his family and others. The Farmer knows that hard work exerted over time is rewarded. The Farmer is a wise caretaker of the land because he can’t afford to damage what he depends upon for survival. The farmer believes in karma because he literally knows that, “You reap what you sow”. For these reasons, the Farmer is primarily concerned with stewardship.
Coach Eric Taylor from Friday Night Lights and the Lorax from The Lorax represent important aspects of the Farmer.
The Farmer is compelled to be one of the most optimistic of the archetypes. They must believe that efforts today must pay dividends in the future. They are willing to work hard and toil today because of that faith in the future. This makes them extraordinarily capable of bearing strong burdens. They do not have to have constant remuneration to stay motivated. They are diligent, independent, and filled with a sense of gratitude that only comes from being without envy.
Influence Lesson #16: You reap what you sow.
In Friday Night Lights, we first meet Coach Eric Taylor as he assumes the role of football coach for the Dillon Panthers. The Panthers are beloved by the town and historically had a string of football championships. Consequently, Coach Taylor is under a huge amount of pressure to win. There are many people throughout sports who would take a pragmatist’s approach to this task. Coaches are paid to win football games. The Olympian would see that excellence is about outperforming the other team every Friday night, but we soon learn that Coach Taylor’s philosophy is distinctly different. Coach Taylor sees himself as a builder of character and a steward of growth of boys into manhood. Coach Taylor knows he must have success if he is to be retained in his job, but he will not put winning ahead of growing the men in his charge. He routinely makes decisions to teach his players hard lessons, even if that means making it much more difficult for his team to succeed on the field. Some of the biggest drama and suspense of the show is based upon these tough choices.
Influence Lesson #17: Don’t let the pressures of the moment cloud you from doing what is right.
The Farmer’s nemesis is the Olympian.
The Olympian
The Olympian is on a quest to create perfection and realizes that perfection is the result of constant effort to improve, develop and grow. The Olympian believes excellence is a habit and there is no nobler pursuit than to engage in celebrated competition with others. For these reasons, the Olympian is primarily concerned with achievement.
The Klingon Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged are excellent examples of the Olympian.
The Olympian’s nemesis is the Farmer who toils on one’s property, putting one’s efforts not into oneself, but beyond oneself.
The Olympians help us because their constant awareness of performance relative to objective measures allows us the opportunity to make course corrections. Their need for immediate feedback allows us to adjust our plan to quickly identifying ways we may be deviating from the plan. They are savvy and able to help us avoid being exploited in the present based on lofty promises for the future.
In Atlas Shrugged, we get to see Dagny Taggart reveal her Olympian predisposition in a conversation with her competitor, Dan Conway. In the book, Mr. Conway, who runs the Phoenix-Durango rail line has been made the victim of a new law passed by Congress which prohibits his rail line from serving the state of Colorado. Ms. Taggart, who operates another rail line, would stand to benefit financially from this new law yet she goes to Dan Conway to implore him to fight it. Taggart wants to beat Conway by out-servicing the people of Colorado. To be handed a victory through legislative pull and backroom corruption is very distasteful to Taggart. She cannot sit idly by and watch the game become corrupted.
Influence Lesson #18: Honorable competition is noble and should be celebrated.
How They Differ and Why They Need to Be
Many of the values the Farmer prizes are very similar to the values of the Olympian. There are, however, some very important distinctions between the two. First, the Farmer has more of a future context than that of the Olympian. The Farmer must wait for his or her crop to come in. Feedback is delayed. The Olympian, by contrast has much more immediate feedback. You can imagine an Olympic sprinter receives nearly immediate feedback because the race is so short. In addition the Farmer, has a subjective definition of success. The Farmer does not care how well or how poorly the farmer next door to him is doing. The Farmer believes that if he or she quietly goes about the business of doing his or her work that they will be successful regardless of the productive output of others. They do not feel the need to define success relative to others. The Olympian, however, knows that he or she can only win when he or she has crossed the finish line first. The Olympians define success relative to outside objective criteria. These subtle distinctions do have powerful ramifications for conflict as we shall see.
More than any other pair, The Farmer and Olympian Dimension describes our values at work. Our preference has important implications to our fulfillment in our careers.
