A Healthy Recognition and Reward System Helps You Lead
The Miller Company’s CEO, Tom Miller, has a featured article in “Return on Performance“, a new publication by the Incentive Marketing Association. Tom’s article is titled, “A Healthy Recognition and Reward System Helps You Lead”.
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In your role as leader, think about the tools available to communicate the strategy and tactics in place at your company. There are the things you say publically, the messaging carried by your management team, the vision/mission/values statements that populate your website and conference room walls, compensation plans, inventive and bonus plans…and your non-compensatory Recognition and Reward System (RRS).
RRS as a means to support leadership is something of a new concept. Not long ago, “recognition” typically meant acknowledging the length of time someone had worked at your company. Tenure cuts across all job descriptions and performance levels and, used creatively, it can serve as a rallying point for an individual or department. But the recognition industry has widened to celebrate other forms of success, too.
Contemporary business issues have served to shape recognition in a way that is more reflective of the needs of forward-thinking companies. Recognizing tenure has been coupled with enabling employees to acknowledge “right behaviors” when they see them (commonly called peer-to-peer recognition). When recognition for high performance is added, the makings of a healthy RRS are in place. How do these pieces come together to help you lead?
Regardless of your leadership style, there are some commonalities all leaders share in their job descriptions. They include having vision, aspiring to help employees succeed and creating a secure job place. Let’s consider how a well-designed RRS could multiply your efforts in each of these roles.
Being a “visionary” may be the most common way to describe a leader. Visionaries see the future and then lead toward that goal. But what gets them to the goal? Behaviors. Only by identifying and calling out the behaviors necessary to achieve success, and then practicing those behaviors, can a goal be reached. An RRS serves as an accountability system for the behaviors necessary to achieve organizational objectives. It’s always there – reminding everyone how to be a contributor in achieving your visionary goal.
Any leader worthy of the title understands the importance of helping others succeed. An RRS serves as a consistent encourager to all employees. It’s critical that every person in every position within your organization has a reasonable opportunity to be recognized and rewarded when behaviors warrant. Employees want to know they are valued – with an RRS in place, there’s a much greater chance of “catching someone doing something right”.
The vast majority of your employees are looking for stability in their work. Change is difficult and scary for them. You know what happens to productivity when negative rumors and fear circulate. An RRS serves to highlight contributions that are leading to success. Individual or group successes signal organizational stability. So, in good times or bad, an RRS regularly communicates that positive things are happening within your company.
There’s much to discuss about what a healthy RRS looks like. That’s another article for another day. For now, consider how an RRS might multiply your leadership efforts and how your company and its employees would benefit.
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