Part 4 - Reward & Reprimand: Adequately & In Time
(This is an 8-part series on leadership by Rajita Bagga.)
Dear Readers,
We are in the fourth week of our partnership, working on the qualities of being a truly inspirational leader. It’s been great to get your feedback on how this series is helping you sculpt your own leadership expression. It’s heart-warming to know your personal stories and experiences. I want to thank you for sharing your progress and congratulate you for that.
It’s been a very fulfilling time for me too - learning from all of you and refining my own understanding and awareness.
The last week was significant for me in many ways. We hosted a first-of-its-kind conference at Sri Sri University on Alternative Dispute Resolution. Mr Luis Moreno Ocampo, the First Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of The Hague presided over it. The workshop focused on how peaceful approaches of Mahatma Gandhi and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji are helping resolve conflicts in the world. These conversations gave many ideas and implications for leading in the conflict-ridden world of today. I spoke about the importance of ‘Ethical Leadership’ in resolving conflicts. In the past week, India also lost one of her towering sons - former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji. He was universally regarded as one of the best leaders of India - an astute politician, a dignified statesman, prolific writer and a people’s man. His biggest strength was his ability to take people along, despite differences in ideologies and opinions.
As practitioners and students of leadership, learning from every situation and person can open new vistas of understanding and growth for us.
This week, let’s talk about the fourth quality of becoming a truly inspirational leader - “Reward & Reprimand: Adequately & In Time.” (Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.)
One of the key realities of anyone who holds a leadership position is to work with teams. How the teams are managed on a daily basis lay the norms of engagement for the team. What are the values of the team? How do they manifest in the way team members behave with each other? How do we behave with our teams? What are the behaviors we reward? What do we ignore? What do we reprimand?
Hundreds of such behaviors create the culture of the team and the organization.
Our teams look at us for reinforcement, for ratification. How we respond to their behavior starts creating the norms of right and wrong.
Let’s first talk about rewarding the right behaviour. This according to me is important. Sometimes achieving goals can take time. Celebrating milestones en route can keep up the spirits of the team. Rewarding the right behavior sends the signal to the team about what matters. When you appreciate, award and promote positive, constructive, and collaborative behavior on a consistent basis, that starts becoming the culture of the team. When a new member joins the team, he will quickly understand how he needs to perform and behave. Sometimes, it’s not just the aptitude, but also the attitude that is important. One of the building blocks is “Joint Action Planning & Interdependencies”. One of the clients we worked with made “Collaborative Behaviour” as part of their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). They were previously dealing with challenge of teams working in dysfunctional silos. Over a period of a year of recognising “Collaborative Behavior”, the team’s culture started changing, silos broke down and team members shared a greater degree of trust amongst each other. This is how powerful positive reinforcement can be, as long as it’s done in time and in an adequate measure.
At the same time, what kind of behavior you ignore can also start setting norms of team dynamics. Sometimes, leaders don’t want to get into conflict situations for a variety of reasons - they may not have the skills, courage or just the time. But ignoring / avoiding bad behavior or wrong attitude will not solve the problem. It will make it worse.
Once in my team we had a colleague who was a bully. He would get his way by outshouting in any discussion. It was unpleasant, unprofessional, and unacceptable. Many of us told our boss that we are not ok with this behavior. But our boss would simply turn a blind eye to this. Things degenerated to a toxic level in our team, and it continued till we got a new boss who cracked the whip on it. As leaders, we have to remember that the behavior we ignore is considered as the behavior we endorse. Tolerating bad attitude of one person in the team can demoralise others to an irreparable extent. It can affect productivity, morale, and ultimately employee satisfaction as well as loyalty.
Correcting and reprimanding incorrect behavior can send a strong message in the team and ensure adherence to team values and culture. When you pull up one person for wrongdoing and ensure there are consequences, it restores a sense of justice and fairness for others. It also strengthens your informal authority and establishes your ability to take tough action. If done in the right way, with empathy, such action can do more good to the team than bad. It can build solid foundations for institutions and shape their character, not to mention, also build confidence in stakeholders. Increasingly, teams are becoming more diverse, more flat and more virtual. This is presenting unique challenges, ones that did not exist before. I was once faced with a situation where one of my team members, exceptional at his work, but with an unacceptable attitude was disrupting the team cohesion. Despite the risk of affecting performance, I had to give him corrective feedback and track for improvement. It was not pleasant, but shaped the team values and lay standards of what was acceptable and what was not.
To inspire others, we need to be able to do the difficult, but important things. When we have the maturity and large heartedness to reward right conduct and courage to reprimand the wrong, we have lived up to a critical responsibility of being an inspirational leader.
Hope you get a chance to reflect on this aspect of your leadership expression this week.
Here is the Personal Reflection Tool for your use, to help you go deeper in your awareness of whether or not you are living the fourth quality of truly inspirational leaders.
Again, “Reflection, Observation and Action Planning is critical to integrating change in our habits. Writing down consolidates and solidifies our experiences. Research shows that writing down improves chances of success substantially.”
Daily Personal Reflection Exercise
A) Do you think this quality is important to be a truly inspirational leader?
If yes, then why? Do write a few word why you feel so.
B i) Make a list of instances where you feel you knowingly or unknowingly did not reward or reprimand your team’s actions.
ii) Write down if you remember how you felt in those moments.
iii) Write down what influenced / prevented you to behave this way.
iv) What effect did this have on the team / stakeholders / people concerned?
v) Did it change your relationship with your team? The respect they had for you? How?
Pause for a moment with your eyes closed.
Internalise this experience.
C) i) List down instances where you did reward and reprimand in time and adequately.
ii) Write down the emotions / feelings you remember of those instances.
iii) Make a list of what obstacles you overcame within yourself to do this. What new aspect of your personality did your discover?
iv) What effect did this have on the team / stakeholders / people concerned?
v) Did it change your relationship with your team? The respect they had for you? How?
Pause for a moment with your eyes closed.
Internalise this experience
7-day action plan
A) i) For the above where you feel you did not reward / reprimand, write down what you can change to ensure that you correct the situation?
ii) Is there something you can change now? Any amends you can make with people affected by your decisions? If yes, then please do it.
(If you did this, heartiest congratulations! You overcame a difficult barrier in changing your behavior patterns!)
B) Identify ways you can enhance consistency in behavior to ensure you don't exhibit double standards.
May you inspire yourself and others! Have an inspirational week!
You can leave your feedback and experiences at @RajitaBagga and @ArtofLiving. You can also connect with the writer at rajita.kulkarni@gmail.com.
The writer is President, World Forum For Ethics in Business and Sri Sri University, Orissa (India). She is also a faculty with The Art of Living.
