Off-Site Meetings

Occasionally it's helpful to take the team away from the workplace in a focused strategic work session. Bring in consultants or members from other departments to give constructive criticism and advice. Leave the session with an action plan, and be sure those who are accountable for each aspect of implementation know what they have to do. Because off-site meetings tend to be more expensive, design an agenda and make sure attendees know you plan to keep to the schedule. (Off-site team building social outings fall under an entirely different category!)

Points to remember:

• Be clear about what you need to achieve in a meeting: draw up an agenda and follow it.
• Go to the meeting with all relevant facts and figures, and encourage team members to do the same.
• Be gentle but firm in your moderation and don't shoot down any ideas unless someone tries to hijack the meeting.
• Leave time for a Q&A session.
• Where appropriate, serve refreshments but be sure the people who partake actually stay for the meeting!

Reward Performance

Everyone loves to be rewarded for their hard work, and the video game world has finally begun to acknowledge its superstars. Many games now include rankings and leaderboards. Notably, Guitar Hero has online leaderboards, for many to admire and others to use as a motivator to improve their play. After completing a tough song with five stars, it's only natural to see what others have done with the same song.

It can be exhilarating to see your Gamertag pop up on the top 50, but at the same time very frustrating if you played a song perfectly and are still off by a considerable margin. Some people will use the later to assess their gameplay and try to be more efficient with Star Power to inch their way up.

Others may ignore the leaderboard all together because they simply enjoy playing the game, regardless of how they did. It is important to find out which way your team will perceive this sort of public praise reward system before implementing it.

A successful reward system can improve overall performance. Calculate rewards with care and choose the most appropriate type for your team. Solicit team input on reward levels. Assess how well your team can handle competition.

In sales organizations, rankings are very motivational but in other settings they can actually deter progress and create unnecessary conflict. Monetary and stock/option incentive-based plans -- or a combination of both -- are popular but may not fit in with the company's financial directives so don't promise anything before you have formal approval.

Make sure each team member understands the bonus system, has access to the targets they are expected to reach and can see their own performance figures so that they can appreciate what they are working toward and how they will benefit, both as a team and an individual.

Setting Reward Levels

It requires good judgment and experience to set a reward system at just the right level. Fix the rate too low and team will be insulted. Be too generous and you raise future expectations too high. When calculating rewards, work out what you can reasonably expect from your team by looking at their past performance. As the team gains in experience and skill, you may need to raise your sights by setting a higher reward base to encourage them to continue stretching themselves and performing at their best.