Rewards and Recognition- The story of 2 wallets

“Why don’t you change your wallet? The stitches have come undone on one side. Shall I buy you a new one for your birthday this year? ” There was a thinly veiled tone of exasperation in her voice, that was unmissable, as she waited for me, to take her up on the offer.

“It is only 2 or three broken stitches. It will still hold good for the time being.” I assured her as she rolled her eyes all too knowingly. We have had this conversation at least 3 or 4 times in the past 5 years. We have been married 7 years and this wallet has been with me for the past 10 years.

It was my first month in my first job after college and I was teamed up with my plant manager, materials planner and packaging development head. Our task was to form the longest connected line of clothes only using pieces of clothing which were on us. Cutting up a t shirt in a spiral to extend the line much longer than it could have been otherwise was definitely not my idea. But yeah… we won!!! I had won something for the first time on my job. The plant manager handed over this brown wallet to me and oh my joy at getting that ‘award’ from him for excellent ‘clothesline’ making skills.

No way could I replace that wallet. One that I have carried with me every single day, for the past 10 years. That was the first award I had received on my job and something I carry to this day.

On my farewell day at my current company I received a gift box and some hand written notes which I will cherish for life. There was a wallet and the uncanny resemblance it had to the one I got 10 years ago is what got me thinking- Why is that piece of leather from 10 years ago so important to me?

People are motivated and moved by different things in life. There is a whole lot of literature on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors and the dynamics of how they impact our goals, actions, ambitions. Rewards and Recognition (R&R) teams must know all of those stuff. The senior management and HR teams should design the systems and plans for this and put it in place in every organization. This is what I had always thought, until a few years ago, when I had a chat with a senior manager.

I told him what I had in my mind when he asked for feedback. He gave us tight targets and had high expectations from all of us and every presentation (and we did not have too many of those) we made had to be just the best quality in terms of information and insights we presented. It all seemed so harsh at first and after 2 years working together with him, my work had improved significantly. The information and insights we had to share was valued in the organization and procurement team was valued as a critical business partner. We brought in not just numbers, but what was happening in the market, with competition and what the competitive advantage for our projects would be. This would not have been possible if he was not so strict with us and asked us to explore more. I heard him chuckle over the phone and I am sure there was a smile on his face too. This feedback was the reward and recognition for him for the efforts he put into developing our team.

This changed my perspective completely on R&R. It really is not about the R&R structure and the budget allocated for R&R from senior management. You don’t have to wait for any of that. You could start straight away on your own. It is sometimes about honest words of appreciation or feedback. Sometimes a coffee or a drink outside and a pat on the back and sometimes about grand gestures. It is really about understanding the person and identifying what motivates her/him. Once that is sorted, being genuine in whatever you do to appreciate the person is equally important.

I have had the good fortune to work with more than 12 direct managers in my career so far and all of them have had different approaches to this.

While one of them would shower praise and gave away too many awards for every project well done, the other never shared a word of praise throughout the year and talked to me at the end of the year in our appraisal discussion and told me how happy she was with the performance and gave an unexpected salary increment. I have had a manager who never told me that he appreciated my work but always advocated me in the right circles and I got to know from others. I have also encountered managers who tell you, you are doing great and then you get to know he isn’t too happy with you from others. Managers who have taken me out for drinks to celebrate team success and managers who forced me to come every other week for coffee to discuss how I was doing. Managers who have given me recommendations after I have left them and told the recruiters- “I’ll hire him back if you don’t hire him.”

I have been blessed to work with some inspirational people and not so inspirational ones throughout my career. And all of them have helped my learning and my understanding of what motivates people and how to work with them. You find that people are motivated by very different things.

For one of them words of appreciation in 1:1 discussions and advocating her work to others was what was motivating. She hated the limelight. Another equally talented person found the words of appreciation and advocacy as meaningless gestures. More challenging assignments, promotions grand gestures and the limelight motivated her. Learning and mentoring was all another one cared for. When his mentor left the organization and he felt he wasn’t learning anything anymore he left a well-paying job with one of the top companies. At 24 years, he still has his whole life ahead of him to make money and find the right brands to work for. He just wanted to learn as much as possible and figured the best way to do it, was on his own, out in the world than in the company he worked for. That was his motivation.

And sometimes I am not able to figure out what motivates some people. Nothing you do or say seems to have an effect on them and that is ok too. What is important is to know that this is a continuous journey and one needs to keep exploring.

You never know what it is that motivates the person you are working with until you start exploring. How do you expect one central R&R structure to take care of the unique needs of thousands of individuals in one company or function? This is why I think it is equally, if not more important that each one of us need to start rewarding and recognizing our peers, managers, stakeholders and team members in our own little way.

The new brown wallet (finally my old trusted wallet gets to enjoy the retired life) and those hand written notes are my rewards!!! What is yours?