Rotten to the Core:  The Story of our best and brightest and how they were ruined

Maximum Confidence	Make Yourself Unforgettable	Lessons in Mastery

Can your core culture be damaged by over motivation?

Can recognition drive the wrong behaviors?

Can incentives become counter productive?

The objective of an incentive is to incite action within an organization using a device or mechanism that that allows the rewarding or recognition of desirable behaviors.  This can be accomplished by offering preferential treatment, money, privileges, promotions, verbal praise, or complements.  Understanding that, I suggest that the answer to the above is yes, yes, and yes. 

I admit this topic is not the norm when it comes to the subject of employee moral.  Usually this type of discussion involves companies that are not in tune with the pulse of their workforce and have severe performance issues that could be further aggravated by either non-existent or poorly functioning incentive programs.

The one thing you will not walk away from at the conclusion is that somehow recognition is wrong, or that employees should not be motivated, and that incentives are no longer a viable factor in performance related issues.  However, sometimes while trying to do the right thing excessively well, can actually produce the wrong results, for the right reasons.

My beliefs…   

I believe that the greatest management principle explains that what gets rewarded, gets done.  If you are not getting the desired result within your organization, ask yourself what’s behaviors are being rewarded.  It’s a very simple, but very powerful question.

I’ve practiced it, trained others on it, and believe it should represent the cornerstone in any improvement initiative.  Over past 8 years, I’ve created countless bonus structures, incentive plans, and contests designed to drive sales performance, attendance improvement, attrition reduction, and quality initiatives for entry-level employees all the way up to senior managers.  When I say I believe in recognition, and incentive programs, I mean it and have the experience to back it up.

Now back to the question at hand.  Can excessive recognition drive the wrong behavior or an attitude that’s counter production to the organizations goals?  The answer is emphatically, yes!

It’s all about the context…

I like to think of incentives and recognition as wonderful little gifts that are awarded to the best and brightest for going above and beyond or for one’s voluntary willingness to perform a potentially undesirable function in attempts to assist the organization. Employee’s work for they’re agreed to rate, and these gifts is sprinkled around to promote an environment of appreciation and good will for a job that’s both appreciated and well done.

With all this good will in the air, what seems to be the problem?

What happens in the midst of the chaotic business environment is that the context of the incentive can become confused.  Without context, the meaning and objective is no longer anchored and becomes subject to interpretation.  These suggestive interpretations can originate from poor communication, lack of specificity, or failure to maintain the differentiation between job expectations and an incentive or reward. In a worse case environment, context and interpretation loss can create an informal employee contract where performance is no longer contingent on their agreed to wage, but rather on the existence and significance of an incentive.

 To help your visualization I’ve included both obvious and subtler situations that can result from interpretation, or context loss.

Attendance Trap…

As employee comes to work and has great attendance resulting from an incentive bonus put in place to discourage absenteeism.  Supervisors further support this policy by encouraging workers to come to work so that they do not miss out on the bonus.  The employee continually receives this incentive, but then attendance improves for the organization, and the bonus is dissolved?

What is the context in which this employee will view this situation?

How will they view the value of attendance?

Sales Slip…

An incentive program was put in place to boost poor sales performance.  If an employee meets their sales goal, they can receive an incentive of several hundred dollars.  Supervisors encourage their reps to do well so that they can be in the money.  This continues for several months.  The employee is now expecting this as part of their income, but due to financial problems with the company, the incentive is discontinued.

What is the context in which this employee will view this situation?

How will they view achievement of their sales goals?

Supervisor Motivation…

As a super seller, an employee’s consistent performance ensures her supervisors team is ranked among the best within the company.  The employee has an attendance issue, but is solid player when present.  Their supervisor is lenient on the attendance policy, and chooses not to hold the employee accountable for fear the employee might come to work even less or get termed.  Instead the supervisor discusses the value of being at work that the policy needs to be followed, but concludes by congratulating her on her success with sales.

What is the context in which this employee will view this situation?

How will the supervisor be viewed?

 Team Quality…

You have an associate that comes across a rough and abrasive to customers, but his aggressive approach produces high sales numbers.  Your team is aware that his quality is below standard, but the supervisor, in an attempt to recognize his top seller, presents him with a certificate and $5 gift card in front of his team and shakes his hand for a job well done.

What is the context in which this employee will view this situation?

What is the context in which the employee and his team will view quality?

Lack of facts…

An employee has a daily issue with taking excessive breaks.  One day, the employee received a Kudo from a customer for doing a great job handing a tough issue.  The manager hears about the kudo but does not know realize there is a problem with excessive breaks.  The manager in an attempt to recognize good performance makes a generic statement by telling the employee they are doing a great job and to keep it up.

What is the context this employee will view this situation?

A manager’s error…

A supervisor is continually recognized for strong leadership, and decisive action.  The manager in an attempt to keep his sup motivated continued to praise her excessively at every opportunity.  The supervisor receives the employee of the month, and has excellent team statistics.  The manager placed this sup on a pedestal that was unrealistic and couldn’t be sustained.  The supervisor makes an error, and the manager had to coach her for the first time.

How will this supervisor view her manager situation?

How will this supervisor view this situation?

Closing Points…

As you apply the above scenarios to your world, try to commit deep thought towards the importance of context, and how it applies to each situation.  Focus on perception and understand that it is reality.  Remember that while trying to do the right thing, you can get the wrong results. 

Above all, remember to use the greatest management principle as your guide.  What gets rewarded gets done.  If you’re not getting the result your looking for, ask yourself, what’s being rewarded?

Additional tips, and areas of caution for the above situations:

Ø      Use specific recognition, as opposed to blanket praise. 

Ø      Keep employee’s grounded by reinforcing that they are paid to do a job, and anything extra is not permanent, and represents a gift from the company… 

Ø      Bending the rules or rewarding top employees with un-balanced performance can effectively disgruntle and suppresses your entire middle population.

Ø      Using an incentive in place of a performance management process build a culture that only performs when rewarded.

Ø      Unrealistic standards only creates a higher level for an employee to fall from...