Reward Power
The Basic Idea
Do you remember when your parents told you that if you did something you loved, you’d never work a day in your life? The famous saying is comforting in theory, however, most of us probably still feel like we engage in our work for more than just passion. Even if we enjoy it inherently, few people would agree to continue their responsibilities if their salary was taken away.
We are often motivated by reward; thoughts of recognition or compensation push us to work hard. Efficient leadership requires motivating employees to be productive and satisfied at work. One technique to achieve high levels of motivation is called reward power. Reward power is all about harnessing the power of incentives. Incentives can be tangible, such as bonuses, salary increases, promotions, and certificates, or intangible, such as praise and recognition.1
Reward power works through positive reinforcement. According to the behavioral perspective, we learn through our past experiences with stimuli. If producing a high quality of work has previously led to a reward, we come to associate that behavior with the reward and are more likely to repeat it in the future.
An incentive is a bullet, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation.
– American economist Steven Levitt in his book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything2
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.
