Carrots and Sticks

Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash

 I hear many employers complain about the "everybody gets a trophy" mindset of "young people today." Our younger employees (and really, the Millennials many complain about are not that young anymore) want many of the same things we do, they are just more willing to ask for it. Everyone wants to be recognized for doing a good job.

Some of you have probably heard the expression, "The absence of pain is its own reward." In other words, if no one is yelling at you, life is good. You have probably also heard, "What gets measured, gets done." The stick aligns with the first statement. The stick tells an employee the minimum bar. If I go below this, I'll get yelled at. So the goal is to stay above that line. However, the stick doesn't tell me what you really want, just what you don't want.

This brings us to the carrot. We tend to think of the carrot as money, but the carrot is recognition. Yes, money can be a carrot, but truthfully, it isn't the most effective carrot over the long term. The carrot is feedback to show what gets measured, gets done. In other words, I know what you want, so I can give it to you. Carrots allow us to raise performance, not just get it to exceed the minimum required.

We Boomers may have grown up in the era of the stick, but we liked the carrots too and we worked at our best for those who served them to us. Some methods are more effective than others, especially if you are trying to change behaviors or raise performance to higher levels. You need to tell people exactly what they did that you are pleased with and why it's important. If I know what you are happy about, I will likely repeat that behavior again.

Regular servings of carrots will get you more than regular beatings with sticks.