The Queen of Hearts: The Confessions of An ‘Accidental’ Leader

It Pays To Reward Your Staff

I didn’t purpose to be in the space that I find myself in – Founder & CEO, Passionate Entrepreneur, EQ Fanatic and OWIT Nairobi President.  God plucked me from the path that I had set out for myself & set me on an alternative journey. At the start it all appeared somewhat ‘accidental’ but I know now that it was no accident, rather His design, His purpose for my life…

So now that I am here, these are my confessions…the lessons I am learning about being a woman in business, building an empire, one brick at a time…

Lesson 24: It Pays To Reward Staff

A story is told of a farmer who decided to breed his 3 female pigs. He loaded the sows into the back of his pickup truck and took them to visit several boars at a nearby farm.

While the pigs were getting acquainted, the farmer asks the neighbour, “How will I know if my pigs are pregnant?”

“That’s easy,” said the neighbour, “They roll in the grass when it takes and they wallow in the mud when it doesn’t take.”

The next morning the farmer woke, looked out of the window and found his pigs wallowing in the mud. So he loaded them back in the truck and took them to see the boars. The following morning the pigs were still wallowing in the mud. Undaunted the farmer once again loaded the pigs into the truck and took them back to the boars for the third time, hoping for some positive results.

The next morning the farmer was away from the farm. So he anxiously phoned his wife and asked “Are they rolling in the grass?”

She said “no”.

He asked “are they wallowing in the mud?”

She said “no.”

He asked “where are they?”

The wife replied, “They are out in the truck blowing on the horn.”

You get more of the behaviour that you reward.

I have learned that employees love recognition for doing a great job.  Far too often that recognition is slow in coming, probably because a large percentage of business owners don’t realize that recognition doesn’t have to cost the earth.   A January 2007 survey by staffing firm Accountemps found that “frequent recognition of accomplishments” was the top non-monetary compensation named by full- and part-time office workers.  Regular reward & recognition can make your sales team more productive without breaking the bank.

There are several ways to give praise and perks that won’t be too draining on your budget;

• Value your staff.

Your people thrive on praise. Openly praise them when they do a good job

• Offer a tangible reward.

When a member of your team goes the extra mile or a team project is extremely successful, reward them.  There’s a variety of relatively inexpensive award options – motivational books/CD’s, training or coaching sessions, dinner for two, office awards/employee of the month, staff discounts on particular products or services, movie/theatre passes, days out & spa breaks, vouchers/gift certificates to name a few

• Reward success equitably.

If the entire team has contributed to a project, make sure that the entire team is rewarded & not just the team leaders

• Reward effort as well as success.

This may seem counterintuitive, but even if their ideas sometimes fail, you want your team to keep producing them. 

• Elect staff to a ‘Wall of Fame’.

Set aside a public space & showcase photos of staff who have accomplished something truly special, along with the details of what they did to earn their place on the wall.

• Make company benefits more accessible.

Hold regular “road-shows” to showcase the entire range of benefits available to the team and bring in representatives from your benefit providers on evenings & weekends so that spouses as well as employees can ask questions

• Promote from within. 

Reward performing staff by promoting them & giving them more responsibility

• Make work fun.

“During a business coaching engagement, I found employee morale to be way down,” said Terri Levine, president of The Coaching Institute. “We created a weekly event to boost morale. One week we asked everyone to bring in a baby picture, post it on a wall, then pick which person matched each picture. Everyone was having fun and socializing while productivity went from 58 percent to 72 percent — all in the same week.”

• Remember the secret words.

“The two most underused words… that get the highest ROI (return on investment) and ROT (return on your time) are the simple words ‘thank you,’” noted Michael Guld, president of the Guld Resource Group author of “The Million Dollar Media Rep: How to Become a Television and Radio Sales Superstar.”

Reward & recognition are an important part of boosting employee morale, showing your team that you place high value on them, and appreciate the hard work that they do.  Greater morale usually results in greater productivity – it really does pay to reward your staff, and it doesn’t have to cost the earth!

With Love,

The Queen Of Hearts

Mucha Mlingo

| Six Seconds EQ Practitioner | Master Trainer & Facilitator |

| Award Winning International Keynote Speaker |