The importance of rewarding great performance

- According to the great American businesswoman Mary Kay Ash, every person might as well have a sign on their chest that says, "Make me feel important." I'm sure you would agree with me that great performers want to be rewarded for doing great work. Unfortunately, according to Gallup surveys, 65% of employees claim they receive no praise or recognition, zero. No wonder 2/3 of all employees are disengaged. They don't feel important. Throughout US work history, most employee rewards came in the form of a paycheck. If you were one of the lucky ones, you got a pension and a gold watch in retirement too. Employers used a very control-based management approach and employees either did what they were told to do or they were fired. Management-employee relations were more about struggle than cooperation. In rare circumstances, there were bosses who understood the benefits of recognizing and rewarding performance, like good old Fezziwig in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Fortunately, today the my way or the highway approach is long gone, and it's largely because you can't control employees. The ones you can, you don't want working for you. Good workers are in short supply. Trying to motivate them by controlling or threatening them won't work 90% of the time. Even if it did work, say with low income workers or employees on edge financially, is that really how you want to manage people? I sure hope not. And what fun is it being a scrooge anyway? Today's high performing worker demands more than just a paycheck. Most of them have been born into an affluent society where the notion of freedom and self-determination are prized above all. They feel traditional management structures are controlling and limit their growth potential. The old school carrot and stick approach won't be effective and will disengage great employees. Managers today have to find the right mix of opportunities to reward and motivate employee performance. That matrix includes using discretionary and nondiscretionary rewards, financial and nonfinancial rewards, individual and team rewards, and rewards based on various emotional needs. It's not just about money. Savvy managers realize there are endless ways to reward employee performance.