Don't Pick the Wrong Carrot

One of the questions we're asked most frequently is: What do I give? To celebrate an employee's achievement, to recognize a team, to reward a great effort? How do I know when to give something big, when to give movie tickets, when to send a simple thank you email.

To have the intended effect, a reward's value should be an appropriate symbol of the employee's effort and its outcome. After all, we all know that winning a million-dollar contract deserves more than a t-shirt or key chain, right?

Apparently not.

When she was first out of college, Kathe Farris began working for a bank. She started near the bottom of the corporate ladder, answering phones. During a promotion to cross-sell mutual funds, she was able to bring a whopping $1.2 million into the bank.

"So what did they give me?" asks Kathe. She scoffs at her own answer. "A mug." Kathe shakes her head incredulously: "A mug," she repeats. "Do you think I ? or anyone else who worked around me ? ever sold mutual funds again? Of course not."

Now, in some cases, a mug would be a fine reward for a simple job well done. But for Kathe, who had obviously gone above and beyond what was expected in her position, a mug was a very poor carrot. She wanted something lasting to remind her of that remarkable achievement.

Just imagine you play second base on the world champion Boston Red Sox. You've risen to the top of your sport. You've worked together with your teammates to beat the infamous New York Yankees. You're king of the world. But instead of receiving a championship ring in a touching public ceremony, management decides to give you a Red Sox souvenir coffee mug.

It's a fine mug. Microwave-safe even. But it's a stinking mug.

To avoid being the antagonist in a mug story, you will have to develop your own consistent criteria for tying the size of the award to the behaviors in your workgroup. It sounds a little hard, and it is at first. That's why so few managers do this, and why so few managers are considered "great" by their employees.