Rewards

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since I'm a government employee we often award a contract to a company to help us with the development of complicated systems and applications. I have been lucky to have worked with some very very good teams of contractors. While I like Ralph's quote, sometimes just doing something isn't enough of a reward. As such I'm going to take a little space here to share how I like to dole out rewards for very good work.

The first and biggest reward for a job well done is to get more work. This keeps the members of the contract team gainfully employeed and allows an opportunity for longer term planning. You have to be careful with this one because if you give it too early you might lose the leverage to get that same type of effort that made you want to give more work.

The second opportunity for rewards is to nominate a company or team for an award. I take every opportunity to nominate excellent performance for contracting awards. Even if the team you nominate doesn't win, it is always an honor to know that the client values your effort so much that he or she will take the time to complete the nomination form.

Next, I give constant and lots of feedback. Most of it is good feedback, like this morning I told Michael that I was impressed with his understanding of a certain type of interaction and I thanked him for providing that type of analysis. These little things really add up. When someone does something well, tell him or her. The converse is also true. In order to be taken seriously when you give praise, you must be fair in telling people when they can do better. Let me make sure I keep that idea in context. Some people believe in the idea of calling someone out on the carpet. That is never a good situation. If you do that, either as a government person, or as a manager, stop it right now. People who do that are not leaders, they are managers. You have missed the opportunity to teach. Instead, take the opportunity to get with the person whose performance is less than what is expected, and get him or her alone. Use that time to figure out a way to make the situation work. But praise is in public, criticism is in private.

Little sidebar, I was in a situation in which I was told to call someone on the carpet. I did as I was told to do. It didn't go so well for me. It made a difficult situation worse and heaped a ton of added pressure on me. Add to that the fact I was not comfortable acting like that, it was an aweful situation for me. Don't misunderstand, I can lobby and argue on a position or a point, but those aren't directed at a person. Once focus is on a person, take it to the right place and time.

Another way I try to pass out rewards is by passing compliments onto the person's supervisor or boss. This is why I keep the boss's business card. When something really good happens I will take the 10 or 15 minutes to send a note to the boss. Perhaps it goes nowhere. But I know at least a couple of times those little notes turned into spot awards for the person I complimented.

Last way to make sure that great performance is recognized is to make sure it is documented in the contract closeout. You have seen me comment on PPIRS before. It is important that good performance is identified there so that other agencies can see what happened and use it to make better-informed decisions.