What you REWARD gets REPEATED!

So here’s my latest “Captain Obvious” moment: As leaders, what we REWARD among our teams gets REPEATED! This life altering revelation hit me the other day when I was at my desk. For some reason, my 1 ½ year old yellow lab named Kaci will sometimes attempt to share my desk chair with me while I am working. Now this was cute when she was a puppy but now that she is over 50 pounds, not so much! Certainly this is all my doing since I reward this behavior by still letting her do this but this got me thinking out loud that the same applies to humans!

Edgar Schein in his ground-breaking work on Organizational Culture points out that leaders can influence and change the culture of an organization by REWARDING what they deem as important. The trouble is that most leaders do not intentionally and/or consciously do this. In fact, we could be rewarding undesirable attitudes and work habits and not even know it! As author and consultant Dr. Henry cloud shares, an organization’s culture is shaped by what we ALLOW or by what we CREATE. So if you do not like what you are seeing in your business, classroom, hospital ward, or even family, that is a you and you deal! The same also goes if you do like what you see.

So how can we go about the tough job of shaping the culture you want? Here are a few suggestions:

First decide what is your preferred organizational culture. 

• What do you want team members SAYING, DOING, FEELING, etc. 
• What RESULTS do you WANT?

Next, assess where you think your culture IS in comparison to the above.

• Are you getting the RESULTS you need and want?
• Are your staff members ENGAGED and ENTHUSED about their work?
• Are folks treating each other well and with MUTUAL RESPECT?
• Do they respect you?
• What issues or concerns are you constantly addressing?

Then take an honest look at your answers above. 

• What is working well and what could be a whole lot better? Write that out!

Now ask yourself, how did we get here? 

• Am I REWARDING the RIGHT behaviors, attitudes, etc. that I want REPEATED
• What am I ROLE-MODELING? 
• How can I more obviously reward the types of behaviors and attitudes that help my enterprise grow and progress? Keep in mind rewards do not always equate to money. A lot of research has confirmed that after a certain point, money becomes less of a motivator. Actions such as providing promotions, new responsibilities, sincere gestures of appreciation, asking them to mentor or teach others, etc. become incredibly important to team members.

Finally, MAKE THE CHANGES within that you need to. Remember, in order for things to change FOR you, things must change IN you! 

• Have a frank and open conversation with your team. Share with them what you discovered and what you expect. 
• Ask them what do they believe gets rewarded in your organization. Again, the bottom line are the RESULTS you are after. As leadership guru and author John Maxwell says, “recognize EFFORT but reward RESULTS!”

As always if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

I hope this was helpful to you. Trust me, it was not easy writing this with a 50 lb. dog in your lap!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Principal Consultant – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

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