How good marks can hurt your kids

Or more specifically, the pressure to achieve good marks can hurt kids. If we put too much pressure on kids for marks, they may choose to “bail rather than fail”.

Research shows that if marks are the most important thing to parents, kids may choose to quit or not even try, rather than to go through the potential embarrassment of giving their best and perhaps not getting the mark we want them to get.

We need to focus on the effort they give and not the final marks they get. That is how we teach children to work hard and give their best efforts.

Same goes for our staff. We need to be far more concerned about the effort and attitude they give in pursuit of their work goals than in the actual results of the work. If someone gives a great effort, falls short on the end result and we dump on them, we are making a major motivational mistake.

We have to be happy with our staff if they give us a good faith honest effort. If that is happening and the results never come, it may be our fault that we have put the wrong person in a certain position or we may need to help develop the person with training, support or the proper tools.

What we will never do is dump on them for lack of results.

IBEX Payroll extends our profound respect and immeasurable gratitude to all the ancestors and keepers of the land on whose traditional territories our work takes place. We acknowledge that we are on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional gathering place of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the traditional homeland of the Métis people. This land is sacred, historical, and significant.

Every time we acknowledge this truth, we have an invitation and an opportunity to reflect on the wrongs of the past, what we do in the present, and what we can do to continually honour the people whose lands and water we benefit from today.

This statement only acts as a first step in honouring the land we reside on and its peoples, and must be paired with education, understanding and informed action.