Boost Your Leadership Skills Simply By Answering The Question,
"What Does Your Organization Really R
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Word count: 900
Summary: The author contends that most organizations reward the
wrong things. He offers a four step process for turning wrong
rewards into the right results.
Boost Your Leadership Skills Simply By Answering The Question,
"What Does Our Organization Really Reward?" By Brent Filson
The difference between leaders is ears. Good leaders not only
ask good questions, but they actually listen to the answers.
Ask people in your organization: "What does our organization
REALLY reward?" Listening to the answer may help you achieve
marked increased in results.
Rewards and punishments make up the drive shaft of any
organization. But my experience of working with thousands of
leader during the past 21 years reveals that most of their
organizations reward the wrong things.
Such organizations may pay lip service to rewarding people for
what is viewed as the right things: getting results, getting the
right results, getting the right results in the right ways. But
what they may really reward, often in terms of promotions and
job perks, are such things as the care and feeding of top
leaders' egos, political conniving, tyrannical leadership ....
Here is a way to transform wrong rewards into right results.
(1) Ask people in your organization what your organization
REALLY rewards. The answers may surprise you. But don't get
caught up in those answers. Don't make value judgments. At this
stage, you are just an observer. Simply compile the list.
(2) Gauge each item on the list against results your
organization really needs. Does it help get results? Does it
detract from results?
Do it this way: Pick out a single item from your list. Describe
the problem in the item and identify who controls its solution.
Execute a "stop-start-continue" process. What reward do you
stop, what do you start, and what do you continue?
You'll get results, but don't expect overnight success. Not only
are many of these wrong rewards ingrained habits but changing
them seldom achieves quick results. Still, keep asking, What
does my organization really reward? In the long run, when
tackling the challenges that comes with listening to the
answers, you'll be getting more results as well as sharpening
your leadership skills.
(3) Ask, "What does your leadership really reward?" When your
leadership rewards the wrong things, you're getting a fraction
of the results you're capable of. However, since we see the
faults of others more clearly than our own, it may be more
difficult identifying and dealing with your own issues rather
than your organization's.
Do a 360 degree assessment. Select a single item from the list
and apply the start-stop-continue process. Don't simply
eliminate the item. Such items can be grist for the results
mill. Identify the problem in the item then have the solution be
a tool that gets results.
Guaranteed you will get results. After all, you are eliminating
a negative aspect of your leadership and replacing it with a
results-producing one. When you make this a long term endeavor