How to motivate people in these tough times using differentiated recognition

Hi,

Couple of weeks back my colleague caught me at the breakfast table and wanted me to give a talk to his leadership team on recognitions. I asked few questions and realised he wanted me to talk on engaging with people with the emphasis on recognitions. I was astounded when I saw the email he sent to his leaders wherein the the title of my talk was coined as "How to motivate teams in these tough times using differentiated recognitions". I felt the this title fancy so retained it as the title of this blog (sure it would trigger people to atleast read few lines of this blog). I did not change the frame-work of my presentation as what I wanted to talk was on "people engagement" and of which recognition is one piece of it. However I wanted to connect the title of the talk to my presentation so that people see a connect and not go out of the room thinking the "managers usually tell what they want others to hear". If you closely look at the title, the words - people, motivate, recognition are all key components of people engagement. How well one engages with people gets noticed clearly in these "tough conditions". The word "differentiated" - a buzzword the technical folks cannot live without , is to create a euphoria so most of the people attend the talk.

Having set the stage connecting the title to the talk, I started presenting my philosophy of people management. To me it is a simple three step process - Set Stretch goals, Provide means to achieve them , and Reward (recognition comes here). At the core of these three steps is how one engages with their people on a regular basis. Let us explore into each of this steps.



Stretch goals - The key word here is "Stretch". As managers/supervisors one is supposed to have a clear understanding of their people's ambitions/goals. Be honest to make sure that you find opportunities within your organisation or sister-organisations that matches the person's ambitions with the group's goals. Once you get this connect, the next step is to make the goal stretched. The reason for this is to make the person aim for more than what he thinks is realistic, only then the true potential of the person would be exercised. Trust me, when the person meets this stretched goal the sense of accomplishment and happiness he would feel is far beyond what any tangible recognitions can achieve. The fact that the goal is stretched would make the person come out of their "comfort zone" and think of newer ways to meet the goal. There lies the new learning he/she would get. I have seen many managers influencing the individual to change their goals to meet the organisational goals. This may be OK in the small run, but for long term engagement with people the manager should work to map the person's goals with the organisation goals. Even if this means moving him into a sister group.

The second step is to provide means so that the person can achieve the goal. This is where the fact that you as a manager is genuinely interested in the person's career comes out. Creating opportunities, responsibilities, finding a mentor etc., so that the person can reach the stretched goals is your responsibility as a manager.

The third step is the rewards. If the person meets the stretched goals then as a manager this should be acknowledged by rewarding this person. This could be good hike, bonus, promotions etc.,

When one follows this simple three step model continously the employee's career will progress really well. He will accomplish lot more for the company. His loyalty towards the company also increases.

While doing the above, a manager should be well connected to the people through his daily interactions. I am big fan and proponent of MBWA- Managing By Walking Around. Make it a point everyday to walk around and chat with your employees. This chat need not be centered only around the work. It could be simple enquires about his/her family, hobbies, etc., I found this to be effective technique to find out any issues or concerns a person may have. You get to know it well in advance and not wait for the structured 1-on-1 to find out. Knowing the issue/concerns early means solving them early before they become bigger issues.

I also found giving feedback timely is very effective as the person would understand the context of the feedback easily. If one restricts oneself to the DPM or appraisal time to have 1-on-1 and give feedback it may be very late and the person may not appreciate it as he would have forgotten the context. The human mind remembers negative feedbacks more distinctly than the positive feedbacks. So one of the challenges for a manager is to look out for opportunities to give positive feedbacks. These positive feedbacks need not be restricted only to colossal accomplishments. It could be as simple as acknowledging that a person's presentation in the meeting was very good. The fact that he/she is doing a good job in mentoring a new college graduate is also worth acknowledging. These little appreciations over the year motivates the person all along and the sense of belongingness to the team and the value he brings to the team gets reinforced.

The most important part of people engagement is to have fun. Little things like celebrating a person's birthday, going out for lunch once a while, chatting over lunch/tea breaks, seeing a movie together - they all increase the team work and people engagement.

Now if you are wondering that I forgot about the recognition part, you are mistaken. I am not going to let you go that easily. But on a serious note the reason the people engagement that I talked about in the previous paragraphs is so important is because, recognition by definition cannot be done for the 100% population. With any recognition there are few (many) people who do not get recognised. So how would you address their motivation issues ? Precisely by doing the things I talked about in the people engagement. So recognition is not a substitute for not engaging with people. One has to first engage with people and then supplement it with the recognition. Atlast let me come to the topic on recognition.

The most critical part of any recognition is the "timeliness". If you are happy with the presentation the person made in the meeting, do not wait for the structured 1-on-1 to mention it. The punch would be lost. Do it immediately after the meeting. Simple emails can do wonder. These days I see managers not using this simple no-cost tool to motivate the people. Crisp emails clearly highlighting the value-add the person did can work wonders.

Personalisation of recognition creates lot more impact. This requires that you as a manager understand your employess well enough that you can choose the right recognition for him. I know a colleague who likes ipod but for some reason has not bought one for himself (he bought one for his wife). So if I were to recognise this person for some accomplishment I would get him an ipod rather than giving him cash or gift certificates.

Involving family is also more effective when it comes to recognition. There was this person who used to report to me. He had worked hard to release the design on-time working many weekends. Immediately after the release he took vacation to meet him family. I wanted to recognise him for his hard work. I did not want to wait till he came back from vacation (remember the timeliness) so I drafted an appreciation note with a reward for taking his family out for dinner. I couriered this letter to his home. Imagine the sense of happiness he got when he saw this appreciation note and also his parent's happiness that his son is really valued by the company. Little innovations like this can do a world of good to keep the employee's spirits high.

Another effective but tough recognition is "Peer recognition". It is similar to MVP (Most valuable Player) and is confined to a month. Through a well defined process the peers/employees of the team make recommendation on who should be recognised as the MVP for the month. There is no monetary reward, but a revolving shield (in our case we had Rhino toy) that the rewarded person keeps in his/her office for that month. This encourages others to aim for such a recognition. The fact that it is confined to a month, there is an opportunity created to recognise atleast a dozen people every year.

One of the most economical recognition is to give a certificate to an individual for their accomplishments. One can create a custom template for this cerificate and get it color-printed on a glossy paper. Mention on the ceriticate briefly the reason for the recognition. As part of the monthly meeting you as a manager can recognise many employees using this technique.

One caution I would like to highlight with regards to the recognition is that for every person recognised there are many who are left out. So be careful of public recognition. Make sure there is a clear objective process for recognition. Share the process with the entire team. Make sure someone other than you makes the recommendation for the recognition. If the process is not transparent then you may cause more damage to the rest of the team while you try to motivate few individuals who deserved recognitions.

I hope this was a good read. Comments are welcome.

-Ram