In class, Professor Feinberg did show us his version of leadership rules, which are tell them what you expect, make it doable, reward them, give them feedback and reward again when it is done. This is an interesting theory for me and I did find a video could be related to Professor Feinberg’s theory.
The video I found named “How to reward your employees,” it was shoot by Stephen Friedman. Many leader could have the same question that when and how should I reward my followers, during the video, Mr. Friedman provides us some tips about rewarding employees/ followers. Financial incentive (Money) is not the only way and it is not the most effective way to reward people, there are still few more ways to do so.
The first reward method and the least expensive way Mr. Friedman indicates is to appreciate your followers (verbal appreciation). To notice your followers is a good start, to notice how hard did they work and knowing the extra work they do for the organization, cause noticing about what they do sometimes is enough. Secondly, as a leader, you need to make sure that the goals you have set for your followers connected to those rewards, since rewards only works when assigned goals are achieved. Moreover, you need to tell your followers exactly why they are being rewarded. The third reward way is to offer some extra vacation time, no matter is paid or unpaid days off. And the last one is to offer some great opportunities, such as an opportunity to work on a great project, an opportunity to manage the team or an opportunity to do something they did not allow to do before.
In summary, I truly think the verbal appreciation is the most effective and economically way to reward the followers. It is not a hard thing to do, the leader just need to spend some time to noticing followers’ performance and pay more attention to it. I do believe a verbal appreciation is one of the best reward followers can get from their leader.
CARPE DIEM 