Page 186 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Assessing Your Organization’s Health 171

Check incentive programs. Are top performers rewarded not only finan-
cially but with attendance at meetings and conferences, special projects, high-
exposure corporate committee or action learning assignments, awards, bonuses,
public recognition, or internal promotions? Do incentives help build a sense of
pride and accomplishment, or are they withheld and used to intimidate?
Are incentives used appropriately and creatively? An important area to
look at is the basis for incentives. One large corporation rewards research and
development vice presidents on the basis of the number of new products
brought to the market, not on the basis of product success, which may take
much longer to assess. Think of the message this goal creates for managers:
■ Emphasis on short-term accomplishments, with pressure to produce
before the yearly deadline.
■ A tendency to focus on quantity before quality, to look for products that
quickly get to market.
■ A tendency to push aside marketability questions and market research in
the rush to produce new products.
■ Little attention to a product’s profitability or return on investment.
Because of the reward for total numbers of new products, the research
vice president fights just as hard for a product with a small market or
low margin as for the home runs.
■ A tendency to focus on products that are easy to develop because the
technology is known (often, by competitors as well) rather than focus on
breakthroughs, which take more time and are more expensive to develop
but often produce greater profits.

What are people rewarded for? Innovation? Quantity? Quality? Loyalty?
Longevity? Performance? Profitability? Teamwork? Knowing the incentive sys-
tem can tell you a lot about individual and group performance. The ultimate
question is, does the design of the reward and recognition system place the
organization in the best position to achieve its vision of the future?

TARGET 5. RELATIONSHIPS, COMMUNICATION,

AND TEAMWORK
A task force can effectively analyze communication and teamwork. How well
do people get along? Do they cooperate to complete a project? Do they infor-
mally share information? Are cross-functional “dots” easy to connect? Are