First Time Manager — Rewards and Recognition
Use rewards and recognition to create a highly motivated team.
As a first time manager, it is important to recognise team members for their work. If recognition is done with right intent, you can build a highly motivated team.
The recognition should be genuine and timed appropriately. If not, the value of the recognition will be lost.
Why should you recognise?
To motivate your team members and create a healthy competition between team members, you must appreciate your team members.
As first time manager, if you do not identify the right time to appreciate your team members, then you are failing to create a motivated team as there is no gain.
Some might argue that there is already motivation in the form of salary, then why motivating team members is manager’s responsibility?
There are two reasons for this.
#1 salary is just a contract between an employee and the organisation. The contract is very simple — organisation agrees to pay a fixed amount to a person who is ready to give his time for performing assigned work. This is not motivation, this is a necessity.
#2 without motivation, your team will not own the outcome of the work nor they will be ready to go the extra mile to provide quality results and bring innovation.
Since you have been hired to manage the team, such that the work assigned to your team gets done, quality is maintained and there is continuous improvement, it becomes your responsibility to motivate.
The technique of recognition will help you to keep your team members appreciated and bring satisfaction to what they do. This in turn results in a motivated team.
Process of recognition?
What does it mean to recognise someone? It means, show appreciation to team members, when they have completed assigned task with outcome as desired.
The outcomes could be task completed on time or there were less bugs or smooth deployment to production or improved efficiency, which are inline with team goals or individual goals.
An appreciation can be with or without monetary benefits.
You must time the appreciation correctly, with details on why that recognition is provided. Once the task is completed, within 3days the appreciation should be announced, only then, it will have value.
The details on why appreciation is given should include what the individual has accomplished without any comparison with another team members. And it should indicate how team goals or individual goals were met.
The appreciation reason should not be generic.
When there should be monetary benefits?
An appreciation with monetary should be given,
- for tasks that was complex, yet it was completed with an outcome that was in line with the team goals or organisation goals.
- for tasks that was taken as an initiative and completed when there was many unknowns.
- for tasks that resulted in automation of manual procedures which in turn helps the team to do it with less error.
And many such tasks which indicates that it is something beyond the regular work assignments.
As a manager, if you create a culture of appreciation for the tasks which meet the desired results and beyond, then all the team members will feel sense of achievement. This will help you to build a highly motivated team.
This blog is part of the First Time Manager series. Here is the link to the reading list.
