Peer recognition works better than bonuses

From his LinkedIn:

> Bilingual business leader and entrepreneur who has made two exits.

He's a Singapore-based, business-oriented type. Nothing wrong with that, but if he's this tone deaf about what really retains and motivates high-performers, then I've got to wonder what other business and leadership aspects he's not in touch with.

Here's the real test of how valuable that peer recognition is: how much does it affect the reviews and compensation adjustment process at the majority of companies that made a big deal out of the peer recognition system? What's that, a rounding error amount or none at all? And show me the sales organization that runs on peer recognition in lieu of commission adjustments in any proportion. I thought so...

Ever since I learned to sell my own services, these kinds of proposals make me internally laugh and politely decline. That kind of BS detector has saved me a ton of hassle and time over the decades. The sales people I learned the craft from wouldn't be nearly as nice reacting to such a proposal, but I've learned not to burn bridges.

Monteiro channeling Goodfellas to Lance Ng: FYPM.

Fake Points for me and FU money for you? That's a crap deal any way you cut it, and if it smells too much for you to make it fly in sales, then it doesn't deserve the light of day anywhere else.

In the on call case, it's still about retention. They need to provide extra money for extra work, otherwise people will just go somewhere else where they get more money for more work.

Your specific example is indeed bad management, as you say. As is almost every other example of the same shape. "You will get X if you do Y" works when X is very generous, which is an expensive way to incentivise Y.

Another problem is that you have to be very consistent and always offer X for Y in the future, or people's motivation for Y will drop to lower than it was before you offered X for it.

There's been plenty of research on this so there's no need to guess. A good start is Pink's book Drive.

Words are cheap in all kinds of relationships. Actions always matter. Hence in the case of work relationships, it’s all about promotions, salary increases, good projects, etc.

VP: Terrific job this year, everyone gather round and give this team a round of applause, your work has single handedly saved the company.

Bonus time VP: You should see how fast my new tesla accelerates. My new house is so disorientating, all these big rooms I cant figure out what all these light switches turn on or off. Btw the bonus pool wasnt big enough to pay you much this year, but we really appreciate your efforts.

Corporations love to use these kind of manipulations to pay workers as little as possible. Peer recognition is one of those tools along with reminders like "you are best of the best" or "you are vital part of the team and we couldn't do without your contributions". Meanwhile company made another billion off of your work and you'll call yourself lucky if you get a 10k off that billion. They are thieves.