Chapter 14
Coaching and Rewards
Reward the performance you want. Positive reinforcement is far more effective than punishment when something goes wrong. To use a carrot-and-stick analogy, where you mix positive and negative reinforcement, dangle a carrot (positive reward) at least 85 percent of the time. Wield the stick (punishment) the other 15 percent.
It sounds so simple, and yet many managers fail to follow this basic principle of rewarding the preferred behavior. Most often, they seem to ignore competence and focus attention only on performance or behaviors they don’t like.
When that happens, it may discourage peak performance. Employees decide there’s not much incentive to do better than meet the standards. And you’re going to be spending a lot of time correcting, criticizing, and even punishing. This “blame and shame” spiral is ultimately unproductive, as it keeps people in finger-pointing mode. If you’re always worried about doing something wrong, you probably won’t make the extra effort to be truly excellent. You’re more likely to focus on not screwing up. This mindset in a corporate environment works to disengage employees and create an “every man for himself” kind of atmosphere.
So, it’s important to know about using rewards in your role as manager/coach. A professional coach does not offer rewards per se to clients, but in your role as manager, you can incorporate rewards with your coach approach to make them meaningful.
Let’s take a look at the three basic kinds of rewards you can use to encourage peak performance: tangible, symbolic, and intangible.
POSITIVE FOCUS
Throughout this book, we’ve talked about focusing on the positive, on what you want. If your employees are always worried about making mistakes, they are focusing on the negative. Challenge them (and yourself) to focus on what they do right and do well, and build from that. Sure, there will be mistakes sometimes, and you can address those, also in a positive framework. It takes time to establish this kind of groupthink in a corporate culture, but be persistent.
Tangible Rewards
“Show me the money!” This catchphrase from Jerry Maguire went from cliché to parody at warp speed. This was because it so perfectly expressed an almost universally held sentiment: If you want my best effort and my loyalty, pay me big bucks.
Money is certainly the most obvious of tangible rewards for peak performance in the workplace. What some managers don’t realize is that an increase in compensation or a bonus serves as a reward for meritorious service only if they’re clearly linked to the performance and are unique. And for a growing number of employees (especially Millennials or Generation Y), money is no longer a prime motivator.
If everyone in the job classification gets an identical (or nearly identical) annual raise or bonus—regardless of performance—it simply becomes a step increase, a cost-of-living increase, a token effort at reward, or a way to keep employees if the market is paying better elsewhere. You’ve rewarded longevity, not specific performance. (This is a lot like everyone getting an honorable mention just for competing in a contest!) You’re encouraging employees to stick around and survive, but not to thrive.
Advancement in rank (promotion) stands with a raise in pay or bonus as a powerful tangible reward. In fact, they’re often linked. During wartime, soldiers could receive rapid advancement (field promotions) as reward for their deeds under fire. Your ability to confer stripes and stars on those in your own platoon is more limited, of course, but the ability to climb the ladder through excellent performance is a powerful inducement for some employees.
Promotion The original meaning was “movement forward,” as when soldiers were asked to move ahead of their comrades and assume leadership responsibilities. Unfortunately, this word is currently used only in terms of positions and titles. Then employees and managers feel limited. (“You’ve been doing a great job, but I can’t promote you because there aren’t any positions open” or “You’re the best of the marketing assistants, but we’ve already got a director, so how about if we create a title for you, like senior marketing assistant in charge of words?”)
An effective coaching manager finds a way to move good employees forward without positions or titles.
DON’T MAKE A PROMOTION THE PAYOFF
Can a promotion be a mistake? If a person works hard and earns it, it’s only fair, right?
Not necessarily. A promotion can be a very expensive mistake, in two ways.
If employees get the feeling that a promotion is just a payoff for “putting in time” and not recognition of their ability to handle more responsibility, they’re likely to do less. So, when you promote an employee, be sure that the promotion is not only a reward, showing thanks, but also a challenge, bestowing new responsibilities.
The second way in which a promotion can be a mistake is related to the Peter Principle. In this case, a person is promoted to a position beyond his or her competence. We all know of instances in which this has happened.
Money and rank may be the biggest and most obvious tangible rewards, but they’re not the only ones. Other effective rewards include time off (comp time, extra vacation; from a few hours to a sabbatical) and perks (the proverbial “key to the executive washroom,” a reserved parking space, more flexible hours, an office with a window, and box seats at the local sports venue, just to mention a few).
When choosing among tangible rewards as motivational tools for your employees, be sure to bring in your coaching skills. Ask them what they want or what would motivate them! Listen to them consistently, and you’ll be able to choose the right reward for the right person or team. Never make assumptions about what someone wants.
GET CREATIVE!
Tangible rewards don’t have to be money. Sometimes a small reward—like a gift card to a coffee shop, tickets to a sporting event, or even a charitable donation—can be surprisingly motivating to employees and teams. You know your staff best, so think about what kind of rewards they like, both individually and as a group. Smaller rewards for successful projects or outcomes go a long way toward creating a positive work environment. Be creative in how you choose and offer rewards.
Symbolic Rewards
This is the category of trophies, trinkets, and toys—tangible items that have little or no monetary value but are invested with symbolic significance (if the giver and the recipient both believe in that value). Such rewards might include “Worker of the Week/Month/Year” trophies and plaques, leadership or sales awards, a profile in the in-house newsletter, a picture in the hallway Heroes Gallery, and a mouse pad with the company logo. Some of the best symbolic awards are traditional, such as a recognition dinner at which employees gather to honor one or more from among them.
TRINKET ALERT!
Symbolic rewards can easily lose their significance if they’re overdone. Don’t overuse them or they won’t be valuable to the recipients. Don’t oversell them or nobody will take them seriously. Don’t endlessly offer company-branded promotional items (a mouse pad with the company logo doesn’t mean much as a reward if it’s also a giveaway offered on customer orders).
You might want to establish several levels of symbolic rewards. Confer the highest ones in a ceremony that connotes their importance, but keep those to a minimum. Bestow the lower levels of symbolic rewards with a mixture of goodwill and humor—perhaps with mock seriousness but not real solemnity. Everyone will laugh along with the recipient, while secretly hoping for a turn.
Intangible Rewards
Many people assume that money is the primary positive motivator for peak performance. But surveys of worker attitudes show money in only fourth or fifth place on the list of motivators. Intangibles like “job satisfaction,” “chances to learn,” and “independence” consistently take the top spots in the rankings.
Reward workers by trusting and empowering them. Give them greater control over their work lives and allow for increased responsibility—as long as you link it with the authority and resources needed fpr the new role.
Provide opportunities for workers to increase mastery and skill, learn and grow, take ownership of and pride in their work. They’ll strive to achieve the rewards that are inherent in the performance itself, independent of your judgment of that performance.
Provide the means and the opportunities. They’ll do the rest.
Your coaching skills are invaluable here. By connecting with each person on a level that helps him or her develop skills and capabilities, you’ve been providing the intangible rewards all along. By helping them grow in their roles and beyond, you provide the atmosphere for success that feeds into these difficult-to-quantify rewards.
Rules of Rewarding
There are three simple points to keep in mind when rewarding employees. Link the reward to the behavior, confer rewards fairly, and make sure all employees understand how the rewards are given.
Link the Reward to the Behavior
A reward will reinforce action only if it comes as a consequence of that action—and employees know it. You can call it a merit raise, but if it comes for some reason other than meritorious performance, it will either reinforce some other behavior (endurance leading to longevity, most likely) or fail to reinforce anything.
You can link performance and reward in several ways.
The reward can be given when a worker meets or exceeds established performance standards. For example, “Meet your sales goal and you get a performance bonus.”
Special merit awards can recognize performance above existing standards in quantity and/or quality.
Rewards can derive from completion of the task itself.
Be sure that when explaining how the rewards are given, you clearly link them to specific outcomes. If you give a bonus to “top sellers,” you’ll need to clarify what you mean. This might be the top five salespeople (by total dollars of sales), the top three salespeople by total volume of units, top six for repeat sales or new customers, and so on. The requirements are clearly outlined, and a person will have a definite goal (SMART goal) to work toward. An employee will know whether he or she has qualified for the reward, and you might instill an atmosphere of friendly competition among your team.
GET EVEN MORE SPECIFIC
In addition to being clear about the outcomes and criteria you are seeking, be sure to be explicit about what the reward is. Promising “a raise,” “a bonus,” “a special gift” is nice, but still unclear. To motivate employees to achieve, describe in detail what the reward is, so they can begin to visualize something specific. Thus, you might offer a 7 percent raise, an extra 5 percent commission bonus, four days of paid vacation, a three-day trip to Las Vegas, or a free dinner at a local upscale restaurant.
Confer the Reward Fairly
There’s no place here for paying off friends or favoring pets. Although you’ll never totally escape the subjective element in evaluating performance, you must base merit awards on objective, measurable standards as much as possible. For instance, production is relatively easy to measure objectively: At the end of the day (or week or month), you count the number of units manufactured, sold, painted, or installed. Strive to objectify your standards as much as possible, and, as discussed already, offer clear definitions of what “better performance” or “better behavior” means in context.
THE UNCOUNTABLE
“Not everything that counts can be counted.”
Although it’s important to measure what workers do, we should never slip into neglecting the importance of things that are difficult or even impossible to measure, such as team spirit or dedication “above and beyond the call of duty.”
Equal access to the competition is not the same thing at all as equal access to the reward. “Fair” doesn’t mean that over time the rewards will even out and everybody will get an equal share. All workers must have an equal opportunity to compete for the reward, but the rewards must go to those who earn them. Otherwise, you undermine the merit system.
Make sure everyone has equal opportunity to compete for the reward. Create specific performance goals, guidelines, and standards, and communicate them to all employees. Make sure all workers have the information, the equipment, and the materials they need to do the job.
Make Sure Employees Understand about the Rewards
Telling the truth and being believed are two different things. We’ve all known credible liars and sincere folks whom nobody quite trusts.
Being fair in your allocation of rewards and being seen as fair are, alas, two different things. You must be fair, and you must be sure everybody knows it.
Communicate and explain performance standards clearly. Announce merit awards publicly. Avoid the appearance (as well as the reality) of favoritism. Encourage all eligible workers to go for the rewards, not just your favorites or those you think have a good chance of earning them.
DON’T “TILT” THE SYSTEM
Reward carefully, to avoid the “tilt,” the old tendency that “the rich get richer and poor get poorer.”
Sometimes you may unintentionally encourage that sort of tilt. For example, if you reward your sales rep of the year with a Lexus, she may gain an advantage that will help her be on top the next year. Or if you reward your best administrative assistant with a faster computer and his own copy machine (those should be tools, not rewards!), he’s likely to be even more efficient and have an edge over the other assistants.
These are just two fictitious examples. Look around you: Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. A word to the wise:Avoid encouraging the tilt.
The Coach as a Cheerleader
Your job as manager might be compared to that of a coach of an athletic team. A coach’s activities—conducting practices, instructing, making out the starting line-up, planning strategy, calling plays, arguing with officials on behalf of the players—have their counterparts in your daily activities—training, assigning work, solving problems, giving feedback, negotiating with your bosses to get your staff what they need to do the job.
Most good managers perform one more important function: They root, root, root for the home team—loudly, passionately, and publicly. Managers may be their players’ most vocal critics, but they’re also their biggest cheerleaders. The coach approach of focusing on the positive and creating solutions also offers a way to cheer your team on and celebrate wins both big and small.
That’s you, coach—the best cheerleader your players will ever have. Share their triumphs and their concerns. Exhort them to greater performance. Reward them with praise. Savor and celebrate their achievements without taking credit away from them.
Many of your employees won’t think to thank you for being a great manager and coach. Some won’t be aware of the extent to which you make their jobs more satisfying and their efforts more productive. But they will reward you with peak performance (and that’s what you wanted all along).
CONCENTRATE ON YOUR PLAYERS
There have been many college basketball coaches who have compiled impressive win–loss records. UCLA coach John Wooden stands out as perhaps the best because he made the development and growth of his players his first priority. Whereas other coaches have stressed winning and sometimes burned out or frustrated their players, Wooden concentrated on his players—and they brought home victory after victory.
The Coach’s Checklist for Chapter 14
Reward the performance you want.
Tangible rewards provide valuable feedback only if employees connect them to individual performance.
Rules of rewards: (1) link the reward to behavior, (2) confer the reward fairly, and (3) make sure all employees understand about the rewards.
Be a cheerleader for your team. That’s another intangible reward.