Do you want to learn a powerful way to unleash the hidden potential of individuals by giving them something to look forward to? Join us in this Finish Strong Friday episode as we discuss the effect of rewards in fostering a positive environment in both personal and professional settings. Be sure to stay connected and keep listening!
Key Takeaways To Listen For
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
Connect With Us
Master your context with real results leadership training!
To learn more, visit our website at www.greatsummit.com.
For tax, bookkeeping, or accounting help, contact Dr. Nate’s team at www.theincometaxcenter.com or send an email to info@theincometaxcenter.com.
Follow Dr. Nate on His Social Media
Do you want to learn a powerful way to unleash the hidden potential of individuals by giving them something to look forward to? Join us in this Finish Strong Friday episode as we discuss the effect of rewards in fostering a positive environment in both personal and professional settings. Be sure to stay connected and keep listening!
Key Takeaways To Listen For
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
Connect With Us
Master your context with real results leadership training!
To learn more, visit our website at www.greatsummit.com.
For tax, bookkeeping, or accounting help, contact Dr. Nate’s team at www.theincometaxcenter.com or send an email to info@theincometaxcenter.com.
Follow Dr. Nate on His Social Media
[00:00:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Influence isn't always a guarantee because you offer someone a reward. The reward has to be valuable enough. If you have different people in your organization, you know this. Not every one of your team members responds the same way. One might love the kind of reward that is tangible. Others might want Pat on the back. Hello my friend, and welcome to this Friday episode of A Call to Leadership. I'm Dr. Nate Salah. I'm your host. I'm so glad you're here every Friday. It's just the two of us, you and I in the trenches working on one tool for your leadership toolbelt, and this series we just started, last episode last Friday on power and just diving into what power is, how to manifest and how to use it to create influence, some pitfalls, some challenges from roadblocks, some blind spots on how power can be misused and some different.
[00:01:00]
Types of power that we can add to our repertoire, not so that we can Lord over others, not so that we can exert our dominance, but rather so we can serve. In fact, I believe the high call of leadership, the high call of humanity, the aim for true, real greatness is in serving, serving one another in such a way that we help elevate one another. Whether we're a leader, whether we're a follower, whatever capacity we are working in, whatever paradigm, whatever context, whatever setting that we are in a position to open arms and say, how can I help you and how can you help me to reach our mutual goals? That's truly, I believe the beauty and the blessing of this great adventure called life.
[00:01:57]
And so during this podcast, if you're new to the show, you can hear all kinds of inspiring ways that we can influence others with an optimistic meter that helps to illuminate a better future state. I am an optimist through and through. Yes, sure. I have days where I'm down and out and perhaps not feeling my best when I come out of it. I am optimistic that we have such power to progress. We have such power to do wonderful things together, to help, to bless, to heal, to give, to serve, to love, and so as we continue this journey, We're gonna talk a lot about different ways to create mechanisms of power so that we can do all that. And so let me just preface with a quick reintroduction.
[00:02:49]
So we're looking at different leadership models of power, both academic and applied, both from the educational model scholarship and the practitioner model. And so as an educator and a practitioner, I pull from all of these areas to help distill. Complicated understandings of different concepts within leadership and lay them at your feet so that you can then use them. And I'm honored. I'm just honored that you're with me today. So we talked about coercive power, the last episode, and we hadn't listened to that episode. After you listen to this, go back, listen to that, it lays a foundation for the kind of power of punishment. And today we're gonna talk about a much different kind of power, just the opposite of punishment.
[00:03:37]
Which is reward power. And a couple gentlemen back in the fifties, French and Raven had five social bases of power. We're gonna talk about those five in the series and we're gonna talk about a few more from different scholars, but these are two of their social base coercive power and reward power. So reward power is the power we're gonna talk about today. And I wanna share with you some ideas on reward power tell you this story. And everyone has had experiences with reward power. Sometimes we enact. Coercive or the power of punishment as an initial way to create influence, and sometimes maybe that's not the best route. In fact, oftentimes it may not be the best route.
[00:04:19]
The power of positivity is extremely. Extremely helpful, and I'll tell you a little story. You know, I love the power of positivity. I'm negative, of course, if power doesn't motivate me nearly as much as positive engagement, which is all about rewards. So I've always been an you consider an overachiever. Even when I was in school, when I was young, I loved to get the candy bars from school and then sell them so that I could get some kind of a prize at the end, and I would hustle. I mean, I'd have my bag of candy bars and after lunch I'd be just right after it. Cause I knew kids had that sweet tooth. I'm like, Hey, it's a dollar.
[00:05:02]
Come and get this candy bar. Right. Carmelos and different ones that we had, I wouldn't eat one of them. I didn't want to eat any of the inventory. I wanted to save every single one so I could get first place. And eventually I would sell through all my candy bars and I would then present the money. So that I could get my prize, and I loved the idea of a reward and this carried on throughout my youth. I remember wanting to an art class come up with the most attractive piece of artwork when we were drawing things. We had this artwork contest, and I drew this, this lion, and I got an A in the class, and even the lion got displayed in the hallway. At school when I was in middle school, and I looked at that line every day.
[00:05:51]
I went through the hallway just like I feel really good about the reward, that it's elevated, that I have recognition, and that motivated me. That motivated me a whole lot more than failing the class and getting an F. You know, an F would be what? The power punishment, right? Failure, failing, and perhaps having to retake a course. That's that power punishment again. Not necessarily that it's wrong or bad. Sometimes it can be misused. And if you ha again, listen to that last episode, they talk deeply about that. But for me, the power of reward was so much more attractive. And I think about that as a parent, as an employer, as a member of a community, a friend. A person who is deeply engaged in understanding how we are motivated to give our very best to do our very best work. And so I think about that when I'm thinking of my own relationship with my spouse, with my son, with my nieces and nephews. And my siblings and my mom, and all of those individuals who are close to me, cousins and so on, and I think how daily, how can I provide rewards for them that will motivate them and influence them to give their very best and do their very best?
[00:07:16]
And so it's top of mind. Is it top of mind for you, friend? It's important to keep it top of mind. What does that mean? Top of mind? It means that you keep it at the forefront of your repertoire. Of tools to motivate and influence long ago, and if you've listened to this story, you may heard me talk about this before. I've found that there's all different kinds of rewards. There's intrinsic rewards, which are internal. There's extrinsic rewards, which are external. There are tangible rewards, which are things you can feel and touch. There are intangible rewards, which are things that you can't feel in touch, right? And we're gonna talk a little bit about those because if we can utilize those in different contexts, again, whether it's in a business setting, whether it's in a personal family setting, whether it's a personal reward that you give yourself, those are all important.
[00:08:09]
In fact, let me just back up a little bit, because the value proposition of the reward is just as important. As the reward. What I mean by that is this, in order for any kind of power to manifest influence, in other words, power is a conduit toward creating an influence situation or motion, right? It's because that's what influences its motion, it's change, its action. And so as leaders, we are required to initiate change. In fact, if we don't need change, we don't need leaders. You may have heard me say this before. So because we are change agents, we create change. It's important to understand what motivates individuals. You see one type of reward may not motivate someone else.
[00:08:59]
One type of reward may motivate one person. That same reward might not motivate someone else. So it's important because power only works when there's a value proposition. Attached to it. And if the value is strong enough, then the power becomes influenced. I'll give you an example. We recently started a, an advanced tax strategy program at our accounting and advisory firm, and so we began implementing some advanced tax strategy for clients. And so the question was, are you interested in advanced strategies? And if the strategies were compelling enough, The value proposition was compelling enough, the answer was yes, and they signed up. If it was no or if the cashflow wasn't there to make it happen, they didn't. Right? So influence isn't always a guarantee because you offer someone a reward.
[00:09:54]
The reward has to be valuable enough. And if you have different people in your organization, you have different children, you know this, you know that not every one of your kids responds the same way to the same stimulus. Not every one of your team members responds the same way. One might love the kind of reward that is tangible, more money an achievement. An increase in, um, responsibility, uh, promotion. Others might want a pat on the back, some type of recognition that just says, I appreciate you, I value you. You mean the world to this organization, right? Some of it is just time. If your children, one of your children might say, Hey dad. Hey mom, can we just hang out and draw and color, or Can we have a tea party?
[00:10:44]
Or can we go to the gym together? Can we just hang out? Others might say, can I have a hug? I just want to feel close. Right? If you haven't read Gary Chapmans, the Five Love Languages wonderful book. I guess it's a classic now it's a great way to describe, and I won't go into it on this episode, but different types of, uh, rewards based on individual we call love languages. What Gary Chapman calls 'em love languages, and it's really just different ways that we can reward people. Based on how they best value that particular type of reward. So what am I saying? I'm saying is this, you gotta know your people as a leader. You, me, we have to know our people. There's no shortcuts to that.
[00:11:34]
And if you've got an organization, you have what, 10,000 people in it. Perhaps you don't know all your people directly, but you have to have the people in place who then know your people, right? Team leaders who know each member of the team. If you have a smaller organization, right? Get to know your people. Ask them what it is that motivates them. Most have conversations that are real, whether it's your family, your children, right, your spouse. Now I regularly have a conversation with my spouse. This might sound crazy, that goes like this. Hey, what can I be doing better in our relationship? What could I be helping you more with?
[00:12:12]
And I'll get different types of answers. One of them is, here's one that was recent. Actually, I just wanna know that we're a team. I just wanna know that you got my back, that we can do this together. My response absolutely. We are a team. Let's do this together. Whatever the struggle is, whatever the challenge is, whatever the obstacle is, I got you. I'm here. And then what I have to do to follow through, because remember if you've heard me say that my definition of leadership, leadership is the discovery of influence toward and achievement of. Shared purpose, right? That third part achievement of effective leaders are achievers. You have to actually follow through, get the work done, because if you just talk the talk and don't walk the walk, you are an ineffective leader.
[00:13:03]
I am an ineffective leader. I've been that person. I've been the kind of person in the past that I've promised a reward and I haven't been able to deliver it, and I've learned from that. I've learned that. Nate, let your yes be yes and your no be no. What that means is follow through. Do what's right, have the integrity, have the commitment, have the will, the discipline, the resolve to do what is best and finish strong. Well, I love when I'm doing a triathlon and I'm coming close to the end of the race and I'm getting ready to go faster and faster and faster. And what we call, it's a pr, a personal record. As you blaze across the finish line, I wanna blaze into heaven, right? That don't take your foot off the gas, give it all you got when it comes to following through on the rewards that you are making a commitment to follow through strong. When my wife asked me, will you be there for me as a team member? And I said, yes. That's the reward she's waiting on. So that's an intrinsic reward. That's a reward. That's intangible. But most of the time it's intangible. She wants to see my actions, she wants to see that when she's having an issue at home or there's something that needs to have another set of eyes on, or she just needs a hug and I'm there, that I'll drop what I'm doing if I have to.
[00:14:30]
And I'll be there. It's not always easy to execute, but those are the ideas of what the rewards look like. So you have to ask your team, what is it that you need most? That's what rewards are, what you need most. See now you say, well, what if they say, what I need most is to not get my terminated? That's not a reward. That's punishment, right? Most people aren't gonna say that. Sometimes people say if it's a work environment, you might have someone. I had someone in my organization and I asked them, what is it that motivates you most? What motivates me most, Nate, is that you promote education in the organizational environment.
[00:15:04]
Absolutely. So this particular team member values education highly, and that's a reward. So what then do I do? I promote, Especially with that individual, Hey, let's move forward. I'm going to pay for additional education. And of course I offer this across the board. It's not just one person, but with that one person that is most important of reward. So I want to accentuate that with that person and say, here's the pathway to increase education. Here's the pathway for you to excel. I believe in education. Obviously I'm an educator. And then I go ahead and create the measurements to reach that outcome, and I encourage and I inspire, and I am a cheerleader.
[00:15:48]
I'm like the biggest cheerleader. Yes. You had the next milestone, that educational journey. Yes, yes, yes. You are improving day by day by day. Right. Those are rewards. Fred. Sometimes we invest money, sometimes we invest time. Because we're looking for what a return on our investment. What's the return? The return is you have greater productivity, less turnover, higher satisfaction, and these are all studies that have been proven time and time again with the power of rewards. Now, rewards can also have a negative side. The negative side of rewards is that sometimes people can get accustomed to the reward and then feel entitled. If you remember the, uh, movie Christmas vacation many years ago with Chevy Chase. It's a classic movie here in the United States, and the movie was all about, at the end was Chevy Chase wanted to reward his family with a swimming pool.
[00:16:50]
Well, he was waiting on his annual Christmas bonus, which he became to expect from his employer, and the employer this year. Started what? Cutting back. And so that reward that was expected, it was a kind of a meltdown, and I don't wanna give the spoiler away, if you haven't seen the movie, it comes on every Christmas, but there was a big fiasco and it all ended up okay. But the point is, is that eventually those rewards become expected, and so they're really not as effective, especially if their reward is removed. So you have to be really careful as an employer, as a parent. To identify that, what is a reward that is expected, or what is a reward that's based on a certain criteria? So at our organization, I don't do a Christmas bonus every year. I do a card that I hand write to each individual, very personal, and I do a gift card to a restaurant and perhaps a movie, something like that. And that every year I do that, and it's not as a bonus. It's not based on performance. It's simply my way of just showing my gratitude, right?
[00:18:03]
I don't consider that a reward at all. I just simply consider that my way of saying thank you for being a part of this team and ushering in a new year. You have to be able to frame the reward properly and so that you don't have an entitlement. That goes along with that reward, which can be negative. Another negative aspect of reward power is when you withhold the reward because of favoritism, because you have an issue with the individual, perhaps you're not being fair. That can happen not only in an organization, it can happen in a family too. Perhaps there's favoritism for one child over another.
[00:18:40]
Maybe one child is more obedient and perhaps is less combative. You have to be really careful about how you administer or withhold rewards based on those habits too. Let me tell you something, frame. I am far from an expert on parenting. I'm learning parenting every day, but I can tell you this, I've parented three children, our son and two nieces as well, who we fostered for some time, and I've found that you have to be so mindful of how kids view you. And how they view your love for them, whether it's conditional, whether you are favoring one child over another, what you say they're paying attention, friend, they're paying such close attention. And so we've gotta be mindful and very intentional to spread those rewards evenly, judiciously, and with explanation.
[00:19:39]
Because one person may deserve, based on their merit, a certain reward, and one person may not. And you've gotta explain why that is, and then also give that other individual an opportunity to earn that reward. Perhaps they have to earn it in a different way. Perhaps that measure that you're utilizing is not universally fair. I'll give you an example in the educational world, not only from an academic perspective, but also as a student when I grew up, I knew that from an academic perspective, I love to read. I love books. I love, I don't wanna say I love tests, but I did like tests, like math problems, the complicated one, the green eye monsters.
[00:20:18]
I'm like, oh man, I can't wait to figure out like the velocity of this train going 45 miles an hour from California, you know, Oakland to New York, whatever it is. But not every child is wired that way. And so you have a disparage in terms of reward because I was rewarded with an A in class and an another A and another A and another A. And so with a straight A student, I'm like, yes, I'm getting rewards. Another student may have Ds because the criteria, perhaps they're wired in such a way that the book learning is not their highest and most effective form of learning, right? Maybe they're a kinesthetic learner, maybe they're an auditory learner. We don't know. So what we do is we apply a very rigid structure for education. And then you have kids who have amazing aptitude, who are brilliant, but yet feel as though they are dumb. In fact, I, I've heard this in my own camp and it breaks my heart. These are adults. I've had 45 year old men telling me, and these are brilliant individuals that they felt stupid.
[00:21:28]
The word stupid came outta their mouth, say, it breaks my heart. In school because they could not compete, if you will, or they could not earn the kind of rewards that were available to them based on that type of environment. So we've gotta make some changes in our criteria. Not that we want to just blanket reward everyone just for being there. No, but we want to learn how to speak to individuals and pull the best out of them based on their own abilities, based on their own methods of learning. And this is an, obviously an academia we're talking about here. The point is, it goes back to the original statement. Do I know my people? Do I know my teams?
[00:22:11]
Right? Even as a teacher, when I taught adult accelerated, I don't teach adult accelerated anymore. I teach traditional learning at one of the universities part-time. But when I taught adult accelerated, each of the students had different ways of learning, and I wanted to integrate each of those ways. And I wanted to create testing that was comprehensive based on a number of different methods of learning. And the students were very thankful for that. They were very thankful that it wasn't just a very rigid type of assessment, that they were rewarded. Not based on that, but based on their own individual merit, based on their own abilities. And so friend reward power. If you've heard anything today that's important, it's this, that reward power is, it's very effective when used correctly.
[00:23:01]
But we also must use it in a way that meets our people right where they are. Well my friend, that's it for this episode. Boy, these are moving fast cuz there's so much information. I'm so glad you joined me today. Well, my friend, thank you for joining me on this episode of A Call to Leadership. If you've been listening, you've probably heard me talk about our accounting and advisory business, and this show was actually born out of that business. Those relationships, I found that entrepreneurs and professionals were missing aspects of their leadership that fed into their bottom line and helped their businesses be successful. So I'm so thankful that I've had all those years in that area to feed into this. And the truth is that so many people still need accounting and advisory help, and they don't know where to go.
[00:23:52]
If you're in that place where you feel, oh my goodness, my tax person or my accountant, I can't find them, or maybe the service wasn't up to my expectations. Do not despair. I'll leave how you can find us in the show notes and one of my team members can do some discovery and help you along your journey. You're not alone, my friend. You always have help. I'm Dr. Nate Salah. Can't wait to see you on the next show of A Call to Leadership.