Sustained Growth Part 4 - Recognition

Recognition 
Your recognition strategy requires the same amount of planning, effort and energy as your compensation plan. It is a key driver of behavior and the companies who do this aspect well put themselves ahead of the game. 

Expectations
Your team must understand clearly what is expected of them and what the resulting recognition will be. This is achieved by having highly measurable milestones, training your people on what is required to achieve them and providing them with a clear indication of what the recognition means to them. For example, promotion to a new rank would result in a Rank Pin being awarded at a gala evening, an increase in commission, public recognition in a newsletter and a congratulatory phone call from the CEO of the company. Not all recognition need be as elaborate as this and I will discuss recognition in great detail in a future post.

Recognition Types
There is an infinite number of ways to recognize your IBOs and all of them are valid but it is important to minimize the opportunities so that your IBOs don’t get overwhelmed. Remember that confused people are not effective. Keep your recognition list concise and clearly defined.

Rank achievement
This is recognized in varying degrees as the IBO rises through the ranks. A Diamond, for example, would be recognized in a more elaborate way than a Bronze.

Sales Targets
Any IBO achieving $1000 in sales in a month could be a star salesperson. An IBO with $2000 in sales could be a two-star salesperson and so on.

Recruit targets
An IBO recruiting 2 new IBOs in a month could be recognised as a pace-setter.

These are just three examples but there is no limit to how creative you can get. The big advantage of recognition is that it costs little to nothing and is very powerful at driving behavior. 

Recognition Mechanisms

Online
You should take every opportunity to recognize performance online. Your website, newsletter and blogs should announce achievements.  

Meetings
There are numerous ways to recognize your IBOs in meetings and this is one of the most effective places to do it. You can do something as simple as getting all pace-setters to stand and have the room applaud for them. If you have an IBO being promoted to a top rank, let's say Diamond, bring them onstage with a great deal of fanfare and make them your keynote speaker. 

Upline recognition
There is no better recognition than that given by your peers. Create automated mechanisms to tell your leaders who in their team requires recognition and train them on exactly how to recognise the achievements.

Consistency
If a person achieves the goals or targets specified by the company, make sure that you recognize them every time. Not recognizing a person is exactly the same as not paying them their commission and will result in a demotivated and almost definitely ex-IBO. If people lose faith in your promises, they will leave.

The easiest way to achieve consistency is through automation. Recognition should be automated in the same way as your compensation plan. If a person achieves the required performance criteria, then your systems should flag them for recognition. You should not rely on people to keep track of this manually. 

Conclusion
Giving every person in the race a medal devalues all achievement and is highly ineffective. Make sure that recognition fits the achievement. No achievement should get no recognition while a great achievement should be announced from the rooftops.

Take a moment to evaluate your recognition strategy critically and give yourself a mark out of 20.