Learning: The Magic of Making Training FUN

Yesterday we talked about the need to engage B players just as much as A players are important. Today, I like to look at the subject of weighing pay incentives. While everyone agrees that incentive plans should motivate the employees to perform at a superior level; they should not encourage them to engage in questionable behaviour. The story of fire fighters being paid incentives to respond to emergencies in a timely manner resulted in a firefighter resorting to arson to claim the incentives is a good one to consider when we plan incentive plans. While we have talked about collaboration and the need to engage employees, incentives cannot be forgotten. The first step in devising incentives is to determine whether they are right for your organisation and your employees. Several white papers have been published by the Society of Human Resource Management to guide employees.

Professor Thomas DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan in their article 'Let’s hear it for the B players' succinctly explain that though organizations downplay average performers because they lack the luster and ambition of stars, they may be the best supporting actors in times of need. I was pleased to hear that as I am certainly a B player who always attempts to hire A players. The argument that companies do not notice the importance of the B players and their roles in counter balancing the ambitions of the company’s high performing visionaries - whose esteemed strengths when carried to an extreme can lead to volatile behavior did make sense to me. With the abundance of literature on STARS, it was refreshing to read this article. The truth is that companies need to recognize their B players are not necessarily less intelligent than the STARS. While A players maybe demonstrate an achievement oriented behavior much more, the B player clearly demonstrates an aversion to calling atte