JUST ONE THING
The Gift vs Bonus Dilemma
Episode 188
With Rick White, 180BIZ
I want to talk about giving, and this is a great time of year to do that. It's time to start thinking about bonuses, isn't it? Why do you give bonuses? You want to show your appreciation to your team for being there, for slugging it out for the year, for just being a part of it all, sharing the year with them. When you give a bonus, it's appreciated once. Your team member will appreciate it one time, the first time you do it, they are very grateful. What happens the second year? It becomes an expectation, and that's frustrating to you. I get it.
If you are going to be completely honest, you have expectations too. When you are giving this bonus, you have expectations. How do I know that? Because I hear it all the time. So many conversations with shop owners are like, βI did this for them.β I did this when they were going through divorce. I did this and I did that. And that's an expectation. You are wrapping what you are doing with the expectation behind it. Like, βHey, I'm going to help you through your divorce. I care.β But there's an unspoken expectation that you're going to want to stick around because I care.
How do you know when you have an expectation? It's when you are trading. I'm going to do this and you're going to do that. But here's the other time it's an expectation for you. It's when you're rewarding. I've seen shop owners give bonuses to a superstar tech way up here they take care of him by giving him a great bonus. The other guy over there, not so much. So again, when you tie any kind of giving to an expectation or a reward, then it's an expectation for you.
What do you do about your expectations? Well, the first thing is if you're really giving, then it's a gift. It's not a bonus whether they stay or they go, whether they get better or they get worse. You never tie what you are giving or what you did for them to their actions or their performance. It is a gift. If it's really a gift, make sure you call it that. Don't call it a bonus. It's about appreciating them and you explain that it can come, it can go, it can go up, it can go down. It's going to be based on different circumstances, situations, events, or your finances. Make sure they understand it's a gift. And it's a gift because they are in your life.
If you're going to do it as a part of trading, such as, βI'm going to do this, but I expect that,β then call it out. Do it. Instead of giving this A tech whoβs a superstar this much money and a tech lower-level tech not so much, and just doing it willy-nilly, why not tie your bonus to billed hours? Why not give a certain amount for every billed hour throughout the year? And then they know that their bonus is based on performance. But you must give them a chance to understand what the give and take is. You must allow them the chance to say yes or no to the trade. You not only need to manage your expectations and be honest about them but manage their expectations as well.
This is a communication issue. It's about sitting down with each person, letting them know how much you appreciate them being in your life, and that this is a gift. Nothing more, nothing less. It is a Christmas gift. It's a holiday gift. I appreciate you being a part of my life. That's it. That way when you give, you just give and there's zero expectation. Like I said, they can come, they can go, they can get worse. They can get better. It doesn't matter. You don't feel like you're buying something, you don't feel like you're rewarding something. That's when it's a gift. If it's a bonus, tie it to something. If it's trading, tie it to something. Make them aware of it so that they can get on board with it, and they can say, yes, I want to play, or no, I don't want to play, but it's up to them.
We give gifts. We have a formula for it, but it's a gift. We have zero expectation, so I want you to understand this. Is it a gift or is it a bonus? And the bottom line on this is it's communicating openly either way, because you're either going to kill engagement or you are going to clarify it.
Please share shop owners round table this Thursday night, 7:00 PM Eastern, and also, we have a pocket business genius on building a growth culture in your shop this Thursday, 1:00 PM You can sign up if you want to. If you're a member you're already in, don't worry about it. And you also get access to over 80 different webinars, all on management, sales, HR, all the different areas that you're going to deal with. It's a really cool resource. It's like having me in your back pocket. So everybody, I want you to have a great week. I want you to have fun this week and I want you to go make some money. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.
