More on Incentives

One thing that has continually bewildered me about modern management is the application, or rather failed application of incentives on a day to day bases.

Often when people talk about "incentives" they usually think of a monetary based program where you are given more money for some achieved goal etc. But really, incentives are much more and much less than that. If you really and I mean REALLY look into to what an incentive is, it is nothing more than using rewards to generate a desired outcome.

So what is incentives really? Here is a definition from one of the many online dictionaries

"Something that incites or tends to incite to action or greater effort"

That is simple right? I mean, what's so hard or complicated about that? Until you look at what those "action" you are inciting them to perform.

When a manager or leader speaks and acts, they are always promoting one form of behavior over another. When they praise someone, they are promoting that person's behavior as the "gold standard", and when they berate someone they are saying "don't do what this person does".

That is simple on the surface, until you look deep into it's implication. Does the behaviors you are promoting generate the outcomes that you want? Or does the behavior has nothing to do with the outcome you actually want, but only looks good on the surface because of how you believe people SHOULD behave?

As an example, Manager A and Manager B (real names has been hidden to protect the guilty) had very different policies when it comes to their teams. Manager A was very much about making sure there are asses in seats for specific hours of the day. Manager B's policy was, soon as you're done with your work and everything is on schedule, you can go home. At the end Manager B's team was on the average about 20% more productive than Manager A's team. You may ask, "How is that possible when B's team can just come and go at will? I bet some of them don't even put in a full 40 hours a week!"

The answer is simple, it comes down to what you are actually encouraging them to do, and what behavior you are really rewarding. What is team A's reward for doing more work in less time? NOTHING! they have to spend the same number of hours in the office regardless of how quickly they finish a task. So where is the motivation to do more? None of course!

Conversely, team B's incentive is clear. Soon as they are done, they are welcome to go home early. (of course manager B was wise enough to first understand that the team was interested in having more personal/free time to use with their family, or social life) The more inventive few are quick to come up with ways that will reduce the amount of work involved while pushing out same quality work and rest of the team quickly picked up on the techniques since they want the same rewards. Soon the entire team was using the new time saving methods, be it to write codes, filing paperwork and so on. Manager B and then take this information and formalize it as regular procedure for the team and give them a well deserved pat on the back! As well as more work because after all they are heartless managers.

In short, anytime when you say or do anything as a leader or manager. You must keep your eyes on the prize. "What is the outcome you want your people or crew to achieve?" If attendance is your goal, then reward them for being there, but if productivity is the goal, then reward them by tangible means for doing work faster and more efficiently!

Bottom line, keep your focus on the achieving real result, and not what makes you feel comfortable seeing. Because, when you go broadside to broadside, you want your crew to feel like they have a stake in the outcome!

What is loot?

So you now have come to realization of, "Oh crap! The fear of being fired can only motivate them so far, in fact they may work to undermined me while I'm not looking if they are too scared! What is an aspiring buccaneer leader to do?!"

Some may say, "Simple! Give them lots of rum and loot, that's what!" While drinking in the modern day office may not be a good idea (at least during business hours while clients and high mucky-mucks from HQ might drop by), loot should be a simple matter of just give them more bonus and raises, or is it?

The happy (or sad fact depends on how you look at it) fact is money alone are not what people want from a job. Granted more is always better, but at some point it you have diminished return when it comes to enthusiasm and new ideas. I mean, how many sports car can you actually drive at the same time?

Something I remember reading from "First, break all the rules" by Buckingham & Coffman (great book if you ever get the chance), that most people leaves their jobs because of their managers. So what you do and say has great impact to how many people decides to stay on board with you, or jump ship soon as you hit the next port.

What is a captain to do to keep the crew happy when mere money alone isn't enough? Perhaps a more apt question is what would make you decide on choosing a job if the money were equal? Then pose similar questions to each of your team members.

While certain professions tend to attract people with similar attitudes and aspirations, each person's "coin" is different and you must take time to learn them. This means you must spend time and talk to your team and understand what makes each person tick, what drives them. Because how can you manage and lead, if you do not know who you are managing and leading?

At the end of the day, it's important to remember what each person perceives as a reward are different, so you must match the person with what drives them. In addition, you need to remember exactly what outcomes/behaviors you are rewarding. Basically what are the incentives, and what are you incentivizing? And remember, you are reinforcing it through every single act that you do and say to your team and crew.