Feedback Form
Home Features Mastermind Forums About Advertise Blog Network Contact Be An Author

The Art of Leadership: Rewarding Excellence

The Art of Leadership: Rewarding Excellence

Nobody works for nothing. That is to say, people work because there’s something in it for them. Financial remuneration, prestige, recognition, pride, a sense of doing the right thing. The preferred rewards for a job well done vary from person to person. But the need to get something for one’s hard work is universal.

Great leaders know all about this. They realize that they cannot simply expect their employees to do their best work, day after day, year after year, without some sort of meaningful acknowledgement. They understand that to get the most from their people, they’ve got to recognize their accomplishments in ways that have an impact, that serve to reinforce hard work and encourage continued creativity and innovation.

Here are a few effective ways to reward employee excellence:

• Show them the money. That is, remunerate your high achievers in accordance to their worth. What value does an employee bring to the company? How do his efforts impact the performance of his team or department? What’s the impact on the bottom line? Think about output, not input. Compensation (such as bonuses) based upon results achieved, rather than tasks performed, is both a powerful motivator and an effective reinforcement.

• Offer sincere thanks. A well-deserved pat on the back, a written letter of commendation, some private (or public) words of appreciation and recognition can be extremely effective.

• Provide meaningful perks. Offer some extra flexibility to work from home where feasible. Give your high achievers the afternoon off from time to time. Send them on a golf outing or to a show. Take them out to lunch at the restaurant of their choosing. The possibilities here are nearly endless.

• Help them keep up the momentum. A motivated employee will relish the opportunity to work on a challenging, new project. Success breeds success. Give your outstanding employees a say in where their talents will be used next. Encourage them to keep on growing.

• Develop them. Mentoring, coaching, and advanced training need not be viewed merely as a means of remediating poor or deteriorating performance. Invest your developmental time and dollars in your top performers. That’s the way to raise the bar, accelerate the growth of your strongest performers, and drive your organization to greater heights of success.

There are innumerable ways to recognize the efforts and accomplishments of your employees. If you’re not sure what approach to take with a given employee, remember this: You can always ask! What better way to engage her in the process, demonstrate your respect, and provide her with a meaningful and impactful reward for outstanding performance?





The Art of Leadership Rewarding Excellence - To learn more about this author, visit Liz Bywater's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

Article Feedback
 Article Feedback No article feedback found.
  Leave Your Feedback
article feedback

Article Feedback
Linda Richardson
Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website

Dianne Crampton
Dianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website


To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us.

About The Author


Liz Bywater
(Visit Liz's Website) Dr. Liz Bywater is a highly respected career success coach and corporate consultant. As president of Bywater Consulting Group, she assists her clients through private career consultation, executive coaching and leadership development, career transition coaching, pre-hire assessment, team development, management training, workshop facilitation and keynote speaking. Liz is internationally recognized for her expertise in workplace performance and leadership excellence. As such, she has been interviewed for radio as well as print and online media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the NY Times, Crain's Business, USA Today, Yahoo! HotJobs and more. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Cornell Entrepreneur Network, and the Society for the Advancement of Consulting. You can follow Liz's Career Success blog here: http://bywatercareersuccess.blogspo t.com. For more information, visit http://www.bywaterconsultinggroup.c om. To sign up for Liz's free e-newsletter, filled with tips for improving individual, team, and organizational performance, send an email to info@bywaterconsultinggroup.com. Or call toll free: 800.846.4546.

Liz Bywater is a Gold author on EvanCarmichael.com
About The Author

View Author Blog
Career Success with Liz Bywater - Insights for outstanding performance and maximum success.
Career Success with Liz Bywater
View Author Blog

View Author Video
View Author Video

Free Downloads


Liz Bywater's

Complete
List Of
Small-Business-Consulting
Articles

Name
Email
If you enjoyed this article, get Liz Bywater's Complete List of Small-Business-Consulting Articles For FREE!

More Liz Bywater
Workplace Conflict Resolution A Practical Guide
Workplace Communication 201 Its What You Say AND How You Say It
Improve Your Performance with Objective Feedback AKA Give it to Me Straight
The Art of Leadership Part One
Success Strategies for Tough Times
Lead Your Team to Top Performance
Keeping Valued Employees Why Terminate When You Can Turnaround
The Art of Leadership Rewarding Excellence
Succession Planning Laying the Groundwork for Continued Success
Choosing a Coach
Free Downloads


 
 
 


Evan Elite Authors
Jay Kubassek  
John Power  
Kim Castle  
Evan Elite Authors

Become An Author
Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details.
Become An Author

Evan's Latest Video
Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media
Evan's Latest Video

Business Opportunities
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"

How to Start An Online Business

Click Here To Learn More
Business Opportunities



Evan's Newsletter
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Evan`s Newsletter

Free Downloads
Working From Home Icon Working From Home
Workplace Culture Icon Workplace Culture
Consultative Selling ebook Icon Consultative Selling ebook
Optimus Performance Icon Optimus Performance
Traffic to Site Icon Traffic to Site
Free Downloads - Complete List

Entrepreneur Tools and Guides
Top 50 Social Entrepreneur Blogs of 2009
Top Social Business Blogs
Top Social Entrepreneur Blogs
 
Top 50 SEO Posts of the Year
Top 50 SEO Posts - 2008
Top SEO Posts of the Year
 
Entrepreneur Tools and Guides

SEO For Africa
SEO For Africa
Mélanie Boucal Thiékène; Thiès, Senegal,
Mélanie Boucal
Thiékène; Thiès, Senegal
SEO For Africa

If I Were A Startup...
Erez Zevulunov, $150k to $504k in 2 years
Erez Zevulunov
$150k to $504k in 2 years
Geoff Whitlock, $53k to $507k in 3 years
Geoff Whitlock
$53k to $507k in 3 years
If I Were A Startup... - Complete List

Famous Entrepreneurs
Jenny Craig, Jenny Craig
Jenny Craig
Jenny Craig
Ron Popeil, Ronco
Famous Entrepreneurs - Complete List

Entrepreneur Advice
Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start
Guy Kawasaki
The Art of the Start
Zig Ziglar, See You At The Top
Zig Ziglar
See You At The Top
Entrepreneur Advice - Complete List

Popular Articles
(Premium Authors)

     How to quickly and easily make more sales by using this simple tool
By Peter Geisheker
     How to Easily Increase Internet Sales
By Peter Geisheker
     How to write a killer business sales letter
By Peter Geisheker

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

More Evan Carmichael
More Information