Many will remember President Harry S Truman’s “Buck Stops Here” golden rule for leadership. Small business owners, sales managers and other executives have the ultimate responsibility for the types of rewards or lack of rewards.
Recently, I personally witnessed how a leader was negatively rewarding his highly productive people. This particular organization had a job posting because the production staff had been reduced by one-third.
One of the two productive and remaining employees learned the open position was not being filled. His remark to me was, “I am overworked now and they still want more from me. The pay isn’t worth all this stress.”
Additionally, some of the more creative, innovative work was left on the sidelines because the attention required in completing daily production activities.
In this case, leadership was negatively rewarding productive people because it was looking at the bottom line, the singular tree, instead of the forest. This particular person is seeking another position because leadership has failed to reward him by hiring another person.
For many employees, leadership is the catalyst for how rewards are perceived and received. Employees know that money is important, but it is not everything.
When positive core business ethics are ignored, when employees are deceived or lied to, when the bottom line becomes even more important than the highly engaged employees, then leadership must accept the responsibility of all these “whens.”
To retreat to the position “all my employees want is money and I don’t have the money to give them raises” reflects leadership that is out of touch with its employees.
Forward thinking leaders understand their decisions and actions can punish positive behavior respective to rewarding employees. How often have we heard of a lazy employee being rewarded who is the boss’ favorite while the highly engaged employees receive little or no increase in their rewards? The results of this misguided reward are the culture become even more negative, turnover increases while productivity decreases.
Again, reintegrating leadership holds the ultimate responsibility for the rewards and the results. Truman recognized this with his “Buck Stops Here.” Possibly when this golden leadership rule is accepted as part of the organizational culture and consistently applied within the organization, then more and more small business owners will experience success.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith is an author, speaker and executive coach. Her weekly column explores issues that impact the bottom line of firms with fewer than 100 employees. She can be reached at 219-508-2859.