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Word count: 900
Summary: The author contends that most organizations reward the
wrong things. He offers a four step process for turning wrong
rewards into the right results.
Boost Your Leadership Skills Simply By Answering The Question,
"What Does Our Organization Really Reward?" By Brent Filson
The difference between leaders is ears. Good leaders not only
ask good questions, but they actually listen to the answers.
Ask people in your organization: "What does our organization
REALLY reward?" Listening to the answer may help you achieve
marked increased in results.
Rewards and punishments make up the drive shaft of any
organization. But my experience of working with thousands of
leader during the past 21 years reveals that most of their
organizations reward the wrong things.
Such organizations may pay lip service to rewarding people for
what is viewed as the right things: getting results, getting the
right results, getting the right results in the right ways. But
what they may really reward, often in terms of promotions and
job perks, are such things as the care and feeding of top
leaders' egos, political conniving, tyrannical leadership ....
Here is a way to transform wrong rewards into right results.
(1) Ask people in your organization what your organization
REALLY rewards. The answers may surprise you. But don't get
caught up in those answers. Don't make value judgments. At this
stage, you are just an observer. Simply compile the list.
(2) Gauge each item on the list against results your
organization really needs. Does it help get results? Does it
detract from results?
Do it this way: Pick out a single item from your list. Describe
the problem in the item and identify who controls its solution.
Execute a "stop-start-continue" process. What reward do you
stop, what do you start, and what do you continue?
You'll get results, but don't expect overnight success. Not only
are many of these wrong rewards ingrained habits but changing
them seldom achieves quick results. Still, keep asking, What
does my organization really reward? In the long run, when
tackling the challenges that comes with listening to the
answers, you'll be getting more results as well as sharpening
your leadership skills.
(3) Ask, "What does your leadership really reward?" When your
leadership rewards the wrong things, you're getting a fraction
of the results you're capable of. However, since we see the
faults of others more clearly than our own, it may be more
difficult identifying and dealing with your own issues rather
than your organization's.
Do a 360 degree assessment. Select a single item from the list
and apply the start-stop-continue process. Don't simply
eliminate the item. Such items can be grist for the results
mill. Identify the problem in the item then have the solution be
a tool that gets results.
Guaranteed you will get results. After all, you are eliminating
a negative aspect of your leadership and replacing it with a
results-producing one. When you make this a long term endeavor —
going from item to item — results will come to you in new and
often unexpected ways.
(4) Encourage the people you lead to question the rewards
aspects of their own leadership. Be aware of their reactions to
your encouragement. Do they see the questioning as meaningful to
their jobs? Do they want their colleagues involved in such
questioning? Do they want to have senior management question
their own leadership?
If people want the questioning to be a regular part of their
daily work, continue it. If they feel it has little value, call
a time out. After all, if people believe they are powerless to
change things in the organization, seismic questions like this
will only frustrate and anger them, creating a hot house
environment for cynicism to flower.
As you go forward:
--Cultivate among the people a common, self-reinforcing fervor
for the questioning. Don't force things. Be an observer and a
supporter. Observe their reactions to the questioning and
support their efforts to make it succeed.
--Encourage the development of networks of people taking the
initiative to engage in the questioning together.
--Now and then, and especially in the beginning, set aside
special times and places to have them focus exclusively on such
questioning, making sure they continually link the answers to
getting increases in results.
--Keep that linkage alive. This is not an academic exercise.
It's not meant to simply have people feel good or, on the other
hand, vent their frustrations. It's sole objective is to get
MEASURABLE INCREASES IN RESULTS. If results are not forthcoming,
have people refocus on the need for the questioning; and if you
still are not receiving results, curtail or even eliminate it
for awhile. You can always reactivate it when the time and the
environment are more conducive to having it succeed.
--Avoid having the process deteriorate into name calling and
finger pointing. The idea is not to use the questioning to get
the goods on people or as a platform for emotional outbursts
against the organization but instead for what it is meant to be,
a powerful tool to get more results continually.
Mind you, people shouldn't be spending inordinate amounts of
time on the questioning. Nor should it be seen as a major,
discrete effort, like an operations or marketing program. Just
the opposite: It should be a natural part of everybody's
leadership activities. Constantly asking, Are we rewarding the
right things? should eventually come as second nature.
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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