Avoiding recognition and rewards that backfire

- It's one thing to get a company tee shirt or a logo mug as part of a swag bag at your corporate event. It feels different when you're rewarded or recognized for your standout performance with the same tee shirt or mug. Determining whether recognition and rewards will be wise incentives or whether they'll backfire is tricky. Here's what you want to look out for. Rewards that undermine interests. Incentives can negatively affect performance when tasks that are personally rewarding, intrinsically motivating, are given an extrinsic incentive like a reward. Think about something you like to do or enjoy creating. If someone offered you a reward or offered to pay you for it, would that be motivating? You might love the reward but the motivation would shift from intrinsic, "I love what I'm doing," to extrinsic, "I better win this." Since intrinsic motivation drives performance more powerfully and durably, whenever possible reward your workers with more time for things they find personally rewarding. If you're not sure what these things are, ask. Look out for confusing recognition and appreciation. Recognition is about what people do. Appreciation is about who they are. Appreciation, valuing your worker. Only when you share how and why you value them does appreciation become recognition. All shared appreciation is recognition. But not all recognition is appreciation. Recognition is good when it's earned and deserved. Appreciation is always important. Beware of thinking you've shown your team how much you value them when you're really recognizing them for positive outcomes. And number three, watch out for contests that divide. Do you remember a time when someone was expecting a reward only to be demoralized when they ended up not getting it? Consider this example. Amir and his engineering team love their project. They were highly motivated to do great work. When Amir started adding contests for productivity there was a lot of motivation to win. But it backfired because people were pitted against each other and they were demoralized when they didn't win in spite of their great productivity. Also they were distracted by the prizes. And when his budget for rewards ran out, the levels of motivation that existed before the rewards plummeted. Performance contests can be fun but studies show that rewards offered as prizes can be demotivating. When Amir shifted from contests to rewards that were unexpected and personally meaningful he witnessed that his team worked better together and they went back to being excited about the work. Look out for too much praise. Praise is a sweet form of recognition. But like anything sweet, too much of it can sour. When praise is given for completing routine tasks or doing average work, it can signal low expectations, it can encourage low-risk strategies to avoid failure, and it can reduce interest in the task. Reserve your praise for recognizing your workers who have improved or pitched in when they didn't have to, worked harder and contributed and achieved more. Look out for situations where recognition and rewards can backfire. Consider team dynamics and find out what your workers love to work on before you consider rewards. Show that you value your workers without overpraising. Your recognition and reward strategy will work.