I'm not underscoring rewards or recognition, but when it comes to employees, it's a touchy area. It seems of late, the new age employees often have a sense of entitlement; What have you done for me lately. Heck, it actually goes a step beyond that to; what's in it for me. When employees wish to be rewarded for simply doing their jobs, there's something fishy in Denmark. If, as a manager, you've dusted off the carrot and the stick, you're being up managed. It's no different than your dog teaching you to give it snack to quiet down the barking. It's no different than the kids training you to buy them a toy at the store if they promise not to cry. If you need to bribe your employees to perform, you are actually the star of the show.
A while back, I received a memo. It seems our company actually sent some people to a seminar on rewarding employees. Attached were some notes taken at the seminar and a line that assured they were well worth taking a couple minutes to read (3 pages in outline form). They were followed by 200+ ideas for low cost R&R's from attendees.
My reply to the memo was as follows, and it was specific to the department I ran at the time:
It was interesting to read the notes from the seminar. How much is too much and how much is enough?
I still say we reward our department with something that costs less than a candy bar and will last all of them, much longer than a brand new car. We gave them "pride". We convinced them they were craftsmen, capible of setting the bar for an entire company. The surprising thing is that it has stood the test of time! I believe we were the originators of the daily one on ones. We told them every day, we loved them. We had all the hard conversations necessary. When the opportunity arose, we: helped them move, gave them furniture, fixed their plumbing, loaned them cars, wrenched on their cars, loaned them money, did electrical work, cooked them breakfast, hung dry wall, gave them a place to live, installed flooring, counseled them on family matters, roofed their house, picked them up and took them home from work, taught them to balance a check book, towed their broke down cars, gave them hair cuts and even helped them find jobs when they no longer worked here.
The most important thing about this was that we did this from the heart. Walking it out as opposed to doing it out of a sense of duty, makes all the difference in the world. All these things will last, long after the pizza is gone.
The hardest part is dealing with peoples' selfish tendency to say, "what have you done for me lately". Perhaps a candy bar really does fill that void. The true test of managing or leading with servitude mentality, is the ability to forgive, dust yourself off and say, once again, "what can I do to help you be happy, more successful and grow?"
That letter was written three years ago,and I still have a top performing department that continues to set serious records and displays an undying willingness to grow and improve. I have never dangled one single carrot in front of them. We have, however,
celebrated our serious victories. Always, a surprise to them.
Dan Pink give a great explanation to the theory of the carrot and the stick. Check it out!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kgNMG7R_5o
No comments:
Post a Comment