Leadership development work comes with many questions. And I’m glad when I see leaders raising questions, it’s a very good sign of awareness, need for depth and interest in doing things right in one’s team.
QUESTIONS
One of the topics received in the form of questions was the following:
“There are often occasions when we have to select team members to be ‘awarded’. For example, by attending an event. I would like the process to be transparent, fair and motivating for the team. My questions are:
- Is it okay to do “award giving sessions” in public, as a team? What impact does it have on members?
- Is there a guideline to build these nominations so as not to damage the confidence of others? To support the motivation?”
BASIS
The answer needs to start with understanding the mechanisms of motivation. There are many ways to split motivation. I will start from intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation.
- Extrinsic motivation is generated by factors external to the person (the method known as ‘carrot & stick’ – reward and punishment).
- Intrinsic motivation is given by internal factors such as preferences, value systems, order of priority and meaning, vocation or psychological needs.
Prizes are in the “carrot & stick” category, and research says that overusing such methods can erode intrinsic motivation, which we don’t want on long term. Studies also show that a certain level of gamification supports motivation and the end result. So prizes and competitions have a good impact, we just need to make sure how we don’t decrease the motivation.
THE BENEFIT
From my experience with various teams, I have come to the following conclusions:
- it can foster a certain level of healthy competitiveness, depending largely on the profile of the team members
- can bring added motivation on the side of recognition of efforts and performance and
- can encourage a pattern of team behavior
OPTIMAL METHODS
And then the question remains: how do we make the awards have the right effect?
- Spontaneous awards
– It needs to be consistent with the set of team values. For example: proactivity, team spirit and collaboration, etc.
– These team values should be:
o well-defined – to be clear to the whole team what we mean
o representative for the team (the recommendation here is to build them together, at team level, so that they represent the members) and for the activity or project we are working on
o key factor for the final outcome.
– “Reward” should be given for behaviors that can take many forms. Everyone can express proactivity, for example, in their own style. In this way we can offer both freedom of expression and autonomy.
– “Reward” is recommended to be more symbolic, meaningful to the person. What we want to achieve here is the “I noticed, I saw you”, “I saw your effort” effect.
– It can be done in public, brings a positive feeling overall, with a few amendments:
o if the awardee is always the same – we can stir up frustration, jealousy and erosion of relationships between members
o if the recipient is rather shy, it might be uncomfortable and have the opposite effect - Planned awards
– If we are to have more substantial awards, there needs to be a clear and transparent process for awarding them.
– We need to make sure that members have an equal starting chance. For example, if we award a certain result, and we have colleagues working on another component of the project, they will be “disqualified” from the start. Such a situation is frustrating and demotivating.
– Evolution needs to be transparent throughout the competition. One of the motivational enhancers is being able to see my progress and see where I stand in relation to my peers with whom I am competing.
– Competition can lead to individualistic behavior. The leader needs to notice these trends and encourage mutual support. - Events
I have noticed a tendency to use events (e.g. conferences) as a way of rewarding. One of the most important detrimental effects here for the organization and the team is to be present at these events without any added value after participation.
The recommendation would be that these events should be connected with business needs and logic. Which requires the leader to have a clear discussion with the teammate about:
– What is the objective after participation – where do we need to use the information, in which projects, for example.
– How we chose that conference – what criteria, what information, what is the broader context.
– What is the reason for choosing this person – competence, expertise, projects in which they use the information, etc.
– What information or ideas do we (and the participants) consider important from the conference.
– What we expect to happen next – how we use what we learn from the conference. This generates much more attention and action orientation. It is most likely to add value after the conference.
CONCLUSION
Awards are useful for appreciation and for fostering beneficial team competitiveness. We just need to keep in mind the goal, the state of the team and make sure we have a transparent and fair process at team level. People like appreciation, especially deserved, hard-earned appreciation.
So I invite you to use these motivational tools too: awards and appreciation. Sincerely.