by Rick Baker
On Feb 11, 2014
In business, should we reward the efforts people make or the results people achieve?
I've seen the following conflicted pieces of advice from the 'experts', the psychologists and the behavioural scientists:
- reward efforts and don't reward results,
- praise efforts and reward results,
- set small, short-term goals and reward results as they are achieved, and
- be careful when you reward result...you may not like the behaviour behind the results.
And, over the last 10 years, there has been much said about how to apply rewards.
For example:
- Is money a reward that motivates people? Some argue "No", intrinsic rewards are the drivers behind motivation,
- Should we use negative rewards? [I wrote a bit about that in no carrots, no sticks...no donkeys, inspired by seeing Dan Pink in action in 2011], and
- celebrate failures.
In the 2007 book '
INFLUENCER', Patterson, Grenny et al recommend:
- Intrinsic rewards come first.
- Social support, encouragement, and rewards are the essential second step.
- Then apply extrinsic rewards.
Consider the above 3 steps for Influencing.
Step #1: Consider your work-situation and the people you work with. When work-tasks are being doled out, do you think any of your people ask themselves questions like: "
Can I do this thing?", "
Do I enjoy doing this thing?", and "
What's in it for me if I do this thing?" Likely, you will agree - most people do ask themselves those intrinsic-motivation questions. And, if their answers to those questions are negative then their intrinsic motivation to do the work-tasks will be low. And the next domino...your ability to spark their flames of motivation will be small, perhaps non-existent. You may be able to force the people to do the work, using a 'stick'. However, the behaviour that follows will be lacklustre and the positive results [if they happen at all] will be short-lived. And, of course, think about yourself. How do you behave and perform when you think the tasks are beyond your capability or offer little of interest to you in return for your effort?
Step #2: Again, consider the real people in your work-situation. Does your work environment contain social support to enable change? As one example: when changes are in the works do your people rally around the change, helping one another perform the new behaviours? Or, is change more like a bunch of singular events where every man is expected to change for himself and every woman is expected to change for herself? Is the former succeeding? Is the latter failing? In summary - What do your real-life experiences tell you about Step #2: Social support, encouragement, and rewards are the essential second step?
Step #3: How much time do you spend considering the effect extrinsic rewards have on your people? For example, does money help motivate your people? Does an annual cost-of-living raise motivate another year of top-notch behaviour? Do you see direct evidence of that? Does a year-end bonus help motivate another year of top-notch behaviour? Do you see direct evidence of that? Can you identify a direct connection between any of those sorts of routine money additions and your people's positive work-behaviour? Or, are money increases more like a 'necessary evil'...a necessary evil because they are required to keep your people from leaving to work elsewhere?
When I think through these sorts of questions - how they apply to people I have worked with and how they apply to me - I know:
- There are times when money motivates behaviour...this motivation is highest when money is short; this motivation is lowest when financial independence has been achieved.
- I know intrinsic rewards work...when work-tasks are enjoyable, regardless of why they are enjoyable, it is easy to spend the time doing them; when tasks are not enjoyable and the other benefits linked to the tasks are not clear or large enough it is easy to say "I'm too busy" or procrastinate
- Social support does influence behaviour...most people go the extra mile when they feel they are part of a unified team; most people struggle when they are forced to perform in isolation