We talk a lot in sales management about rewarding good or bad behavior. A compensation plan should drive good behavior so they say. Easy to talk about but really hard to do. Every human behavior will produce good and bad, so it is really hard to create a motivation model that rewards only good. In fact, it is probably impossible. Now we can find behaviors that produce more good than bad and as a consequence that is what a compensation plan usually focuses on.
However, my note this morning is not about compensation. It is about personal accountability. Do you have a reward system for yourself? Here is the really complex thought. You do. Whether you have it defined or not, you have one. You are rewarding yourself somehow. This maybe completely a unconscious effort or maybe it is deliberate. The point is that you do have a reward system.
So here is the tough question that I am really grappling with this morning. Is my current reward system encouraging good or bad behavior?
Gulp. Not sure I like the answer.
Guy Reams
That’s why maybe it’s not about reward. Maybe it’s about a way to behave that is objectively right mandated by a higher reality than ours that will lead to human self fulfillment. Who cares about the reward? A partner in doing good and bringing good in this world. ( As learned from a kabalistic teacher of mine-The Lubavitcher Rebbe).