Reward, Recognition or Revenge ?

My advice? Choose your poison carefully.

It has occurred to me lately that way too many organization's everywhere are somehow managing to miss the point when it comes to R + R - and just to be clear, that means Reward and Recognition. It is as though they are caught in some sort of Darth Vader time warp, back in an old fashioned era and a far simpler time where "fair" somehow meant "equal". Guess what?

It doesn't any more.

It never did.

We just thought it did.

Today, the "fair" thing to do is to be "unequal". It means you make a very conscious choice to discriminate. To sharply delineate between those who perform and those that don't. Those that do, should get a much different share of the pie than those that don't. Not the same share.

Yes, I understand that a one size fits all R + R policy is easier to administer but I am not worried about making life easier for the bureaucrats and book keepers. I am more concerned about how it just serves to perpetuate a level playing field and a "lowest common denominator" standard.

In fact, when you choose fair means equal, all you are doing is penalizing the very people who are performing in an above average manner. That doesn't seem to me like much of an incentive to excel.

Think again. Which one do you want? The comfort of the status quo and equality or the benefits of fairness and hyper-performance.