INCENTIVE COMPENSATION-5 MOST COMMON MISTAKES

Incentive compensation can be a great way for an organization to incent employees to work to the best of their individual abilities and to work together collaboratively. Both of these in place greatly enhance an organization’s likelihood of achieving or exceeding its objectives.

However, as LoDico’s Law #2 states, “There are lots of wrong ways to do something that’s right or good.” This certainly applies to incentive compensation plans.

The most common mistakes that organizations make that in turn diminish the value and impact of an incentive compensation plan are:

1) The potential rewards are insufficient to cause employees to be appropriately motivated to strive enthusiastically toward achieving the necessary performance levels to trigger reward payments.

  • If you fail to avoid this mistake, it does not matter if you avoid the other mistakes.

2) The plan is too complex.

  • It needs to be designed and communicated in such a way that participants can easily grasp how it works.

3) The metrics upon which rewards are based are outside the control or influence of participants.
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  • In compensation terms, this refers to the “line of sight”. In simple terms, it means that employees need to clearly see how their roles impact the outcomes upon which they will be rewarded.
  • The harder it is for them to see the connection between their work and the rewards, the less is the effectiveness of the plan to accomplish what is stated in this blog’s first paragraph.

4) The goals are perceived as too difficult to achieve.

  • The goals should strike a balance between being challenging and being achievable.

5) There is insufficient communication to participants as to the actual performance goals in comparison to the performance levels needed for rewards to be given.

  • To use a sports analogy, at any given time, the players need to be able to look to the scoreboard to see if they are winning or not.

Posted in Compensation & Performance Management

John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success”

There are a number of parallels between coaching a sports team and leading a business team. The late John Wooden is considered by many to be the most successful sports coach of all time. His UCLA basketball team won 10 NCAA national championships, including 7 consecutive ones. I doubt this is a record of success that will ever be matched, let along exceeded.

Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success” is very applicable to a business team as it is focused on how to make the individuals in the organization grow and in turn help the organization to maximize its potential. Coach Wooden provided the following simple but powerful 10 keys to building a championship team::

  1. Listen … to those under you
  2. Care … for them, genuinely, for their own good, not just for what they can do for you or the organization
  3. Give recognition … everyone wants it, and it encourages them to do even better
  4. Be prepared … the Boy Scouts had it right, it’s a key to success
  5. Work hard … success doesn’t come without it
  6. Be enthusiastic … and be contagious with it
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  8. Be patient … it can take time
  9. Be confident … it breeds an attitude for success
  10. Mistakes happen … don’t be surprised by or afraid of them
  11. Respect is a by-product … lead the right way and it happens

Below is a copy of his “Pyramid of Success”:

pyramid

Posted in Teams & Teambuilding

Dealing in Conflict: Part 2

Part 1 on this subject talked about some of the causes of conflict and the potentially damaging consequences of unresolved conflicts in the work place.

The good news is that by resolving conflict successfully, you can solve many of the problems that it has brought to the surface, as well as getting benefits that you might not at first expect, such as:

  • Increased understanding and insight into the situation by the involved parties.
  • Stronger mutual respect
  • A renewed faith in their ability to work together

Here is a six step process that has been proven to be highlyThe most important feature of this medicine is 36 hours of cialis without prescription view address celestial pleasure is guaranteed. effective. The six steps in the process are straightforward; however, the degree of effectiveness is directly related to how capable and how committed an organization is to going through each of the steps and the paths down which those steps will take it.

The steps are identified below:

  1. Clarify what the disagreement is.
  2. Establish a common goal for both parties.
  3. Discuss ways to meet the common goal.
  4. Determine the barriers to the common goal.
  5. Agree on the best way to resolve the conflict.
  6. Acknowledge the agreed solution and determine the responsibilities each party has in the resolution.

 

Posted in Teams & Teambuilding

Dealing with Conflict: Part 1

Have you ever worked within an organization where there was never any conflict? None of us has! That’s because for an organization to be conflict-free it would have to be made up of perfect people. Given that none of us is perfect, it seems that conflict in the workplace is merely an outgrowth of our individual and collective imperfections.

Conflict commonly arises because individuals:

  • Have differing points of view
  • Communicate with and to one another differently
  • Spend large amounts of time together
  • Depend on one another to “get the job done”

Although conflict is inevitable, it does not nor should it be disregarded or downplayed. Avoiding conflict is simply not an option for any entity.

It is important to address conflict because unresolved conflict and the resulting strained relationships can lead to any or all of the following unhealthy, and potentially lethal, situations:

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  • Divided teams
  • Low morale
  • Loss of productivity
  • “Presenteeism” (meaning employees are physically at work, but their hands, minds and hearts are not)
  • Employee turnover
  • Reduced quality of products or services
  • Customer/client service issues
  • Unhealthy confrontation
  • Grievances, regulatory agency complaints or lawsuits
  • In extreme cases, workplace violence

Posted in Teams & Teambuilding

PRIORITIZING

As managers, one of our important responsibilities is to set priorities and to help our employees set priorities in terms of what needs to be accomplished. Without establishing priorities, it is too easy for one of the following to take place:

  • Wrong priorities are assumed—either too high or too low
  • No distinction is made between what’s really important & what can be delayed
  • Everything is considered to be a “must do now”

The Pareto Principle applies to priorities–20% of priorities will give you 80% of productivity/results—that’s a 4-fold return.

All work has to be viewed in the context of two questions: (1) How important is it? and (2)How urgent is it?

Based on those two factors (importance & urgency), all work then typically falls into 1 of the following 4 priority categories:

  1. High Importance/High Urgency
    • Do these things first!
  2. High Importance/Low Urgency
    • Set deadlines for completion!
    • Work into your daily routine!
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  3. Low Importance/High Urgency
    • Do after “High Importance/High Urgency”!
  4. Low Importance/Low Urgency
    • Put aside, but commit “X” amount of time each day, week or month towards getting them done.

The 3 “E’s” of prioritizing are:

  1. Evaluate – What are my priorities?
  2. Estimate – How much time will each take?
  3. Eliminate – What is on my “to do” list that does not need to be done or can be assigned to someone else?

Posted in Strategy, Management & Leadership

A Leader’s Vision

A leader should have great vision–and I am not talking about eyesight. A leader must be able to see:

  • Before others see – seeing not just the present but also into the future; being able to anticipate the next round of challenges & opportunities
  • More than others see – seeing the hidden issues; seeing untapped potential; seeing what others do not see

A leader’s vision:

  • Starts from within
  • Draws upon her/his past experiences, including both successes & failures
  • Paints the picture with great clarity so followers cannot just “catch the vision”, but can also “run with the vision”

If the vision by the leader is very clear, it will:

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  • Provide direction, serving as a road map for the future
  • Breed passion, causing the organization/your team to catch your enthusiasm & want to join the journey
  • Creates meaning, which enables a better understanding about how what each employee does each day fits into the proverbial “big picture”
  • Develops unity, with everyone driving toward the same outcome

A great example of the power of a leader’s vision can be seen in America’s achieving of President John F. Kennedy’s dream of putting a man on the moon.

  • This dream came to fruition in part on February 20, 1962 when astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.
  • It came to full fruition on July 20, 1969 when astronaut Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon, famously saying, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’.

 

Posted in Strategy, Management & Leadership

What You Need to Know About 2014 Pay Increases

Recently, a study of pay increase planning for 2014 was conducted of more than 4,500 companies, with the following breakdown by # of employees.

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The key findings of the survey are shown below:

Pay Increases in 2014

  • 88% of all surveyed companies are planning to give pay increases. This is up from 83% in 2013.
  • A major factor cited for doing so is retention of key talent. Almost 60% stated that talent retention is their “#1 or high” concern.
    • The U.S. “All Industries” average turnover rate (including both voluntary and involuntary turnover) for 2013 was 15.1%Immunity from external pathogens require the inside of the artery wall for atherosclerosis and evaluating the flow across areas of these “mildly abnormal” areas to define the importance of the plaque in the veins and arteries. browse around this online cialis. The voluntary turnover rate was 10.4%, which represents 69% of all terminations.
    • Given this turnover rate and the high cost of turnover, it stands to reason that companies are concerned about their ability to retain their employees.
  • The average increase is projected to be 4.5%, up by about 1.0% from 2013’s pay increases.
    • From 2008 through 2013, the average pay increase has been in the 3.0% to 3.5% so it is significant that 2014’s pay increases are projected to cross over the 4.0+ range.
  • The average increase by company size as measured by the number of employees is:

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Posted in Compensation & Performance Management

THE 5 W’s OF AN ENCOURAGING LEADER

1. WATCHFULNESS

  • Be observant so that your encouragement is:
    • Specific
    • Timely

2. WORDS

  • Serve to reinforce the performance & behaviors you desire
  • Express your appreciation

3. WRITING

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  • Often even more powerful that spoken words
  • Notes are a tangible reminder to the recipient—long after we may have forgotten the note, the employee has not

4. WALLET

  • Even a small monetary reward is important & valued as much as or more than the value itself

5. WINNING

  • Celebrate wins—including small ones
  • Winning begets winning

 

Posted in Employee & Labor Relations

WHY DO EMPLOYEES FAIL AND WHAT ROLE DO WE AS MANAGERS PLAY IN IT?

If you have had employees under you for any substantial length of time, you have probably had someone who did not perform to the level they needed to. When this takes place, we as managers (regardless of our level or title) have an obligation to assess what went wrong, especially in terms of identifying how we may have contributed to their lack of success.

Over the years, I have had individuals who were not successful. As a result, I had to go through an assessment to try to discover why and what I could have done to make a difference in the outcome. I also have had to assist numerous colleagues and clients to go through this assessment process.

Each situation is unique in some respect and there are numerous, varied reasons for the lack of success on the part of an employee. Nonetheless, after going through this process personally or as a coach to a colleague or client, I discovered four commons reasons that the vast majority of failures fall into.

These are the 4 most common reasons employees are not successful. Each of them has a component that contains a managerial responsibility.

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  1. Do not have a clear and complete understanding of WHAT they are supposed to do.
  2. Do not know HOW to do it.
  3. Do not grasp WHY they are doing it.
  4. Face OBSTACLES beyond their control.

Think about the most recent person under you who was not successful. In retrospect, was there something within one or more of these reasons that you could have done to potentially prevent the undesired outcome for the person, you and the organization?

Posted in Compensation & Performance Management

COMMON TRAITS OF GREAT BOSSES

I recently got to thinking about the various bosses I had during my 40+ career in business, especially those during the 25 year executive part of my career. My views of them, at last in hindsight, are that each had certain positive traits, as well as some not so positive ones. I am confident that this comes as no shocking revelation to anyone.

I mentally rated them from “great” to “oh me”. After doing so, I came to the conclusion that those that I rated as “great” or at least “very good” had several traits in common. These traits involve “TLC”—no, not Tender Loving Care”.

When it comes to being a great boss, the “TLC” stands for the following traits:

T: Trustworthy and Trusting
L: Leadership and Likeable
C: Competent and Caring

Let’s look at each of these traits in a practical way rather than from the dictionary:

T:

  • Trustworthy – This refers to someone in whom you can place your confidence because they are reliable, dependable and their word can be counted on.
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  • Trusting – This equates to a boss who believes in their employees’ integrity, character and ability. It translates into an employee’s feeling the boss is not always looking over her/his shoulder and/or second guessing an employee’s ability, judgment, honesty, etc.

L:

  • Leadership – The individual has the ability to exert positive influence in order to move people in the right direction.
  • Likeable – Forget the common notion that as a boss we don’t have to be liked, but only respected. The truth is that people respond better to, are more willing to “go the extra mile” and have greater enjoyment working for someone they like as opposed to someone they merely respect.

C:

  • Competent – People want their boss to have the necessary experience, knowledge and skills to be successful. It makes work life better for them as employees.
  • Caring – A caring boss demonstrates her/his genuine concern for their employees as human beings and not just as employees who produce output in the form of product or services.

 

Posted in Employee & Labor Relations